A six-year-old child was slashed in the throat by a Somali asylum seeker in Rimini, Italy, with four other adult women being stabbed during the rampage, it is alleged.

The 26-year-old man from Somalia was arrested on Saturday evening after wounding five with a knife. He will face charges of attempted murder, assault, and attempted robbery.

One of his victims was a six-year-old boy, who was stabbed in the throat while travelling on a bus with his mother, according to the Il Mattino newspaper.

After the Somali man was asked to provide a ticket for the bus in Rimini by two female workers, the attacker pulled out a knife, stabbing the employees before fleeing. Before being detained by police, he was able to attack a further three people, ANSA reported.

Five people, including the young boy, were injured in the attack. Luckily none of the injuries appears to be life-threatening.

The attacker is believed to have been in Italy for the past few months and has applied for refugee status — after failing to gain the status in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands after first entering the European Union in 2015.

According to witnesses, the migrant had been living in a Red Cross facility and had demonstrated a “violent and aggressive” personality. It has been suggested that he may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the vicious attack.

“What happened in Rimini is of unprecedented gravity. We are close to the injured people in Rimini, including a child. Before anything else, the thought goes to them and their loved ones. Thanks to the police for the prompt intervention that led to the arrest of the attacker,” said the president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini.

Matteo Salvini, the leader of the national populist League (Lega) party, described the attacker as a “damned thug” and said that he hopes “nobody says ‘poor thing’” about the failed asylum seeker.

The head of the nationalist Brothers of Italy party, Giorgia Meloni, also condemned the attack, demanding that the Somali man “pays dearly” for his crimes.

The attack comes just over a week after a 45-year-old African migrant stabbed a man in Milan with a broken bottle after he tried to protect his nine-year-old niece from being sexually assaulted by the migrant.

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