TURIN - A package containing explosive devices sent to the Mayor of Piedmont’s capital was Monday intercepted by local police forces.

 The letter, first detected by x-ray scans, contained a battery connected by a series of wires a bag of gunpowder that it is believed could have exploded upon arrival at its intended address.  

 “The way in which the parcel was packaged suggests that it can be traced back to a group of insurrectionary anarchists,” the police stated.

 It is believed that the package could be linked to anarchic group L’Asilo. More than ten members of the organisation were arrested in February on suspicion of, amongst other activity, an attack on the French Embassy.  

 Italian politicians were quick to express their support for Chiara Appendino, who has been Turin’s mayor since June 2016.

 Prime minister Giuseppe Conte took to Twitter to write: “I express full solidarity with the Mayor of Turin, victim of a serious act of intimidation. The entire government is by her side. The State will not allow such threats to prevent it from fully exercising its role.”

 Appendino thanked those who sent messages of support, before addressing those behind the package. “If someone thinks they are intimidating me, they are very wrong,” She wrote, “I move onwards, more determined than before.”

 Police are now on high alert for further similar packages, with sources this morning stating that these are rarely isolated incidents.

ea