A suspected arson attack against a deprived Roma family in the Italian capital has left three sisters dead, aged 4, 8 and 20.
The victims died after the caravan they were sleeping in with their parents and 11 other siblings caught fire while parked in the empty car park of a supermarket in an eastern district of Rome.
Investigators, who have obtained a video in which someone can be seen throwing a petrol bomb on the caravan, suspect a racist attack or a vendetta within the Roma community, the ANSA news agency reported Wednesday.
Rome Mayor Virgina Raggi, who visited the scene, expressed her administration's "deepest condolences" and called the deaths "a pain for the whole city."
President Sergio Mattarella commented from a state visit to Argentina: "Whoever it was, it is a horrible crime. When you sink to killing children you are below human nature."
In Italy, population estimates for the minority group range from 120,000 to 180,000. Some 28,000 live in precarious living conditions, including in 149 shanty towns spread across the nation, the Associazione 21 Luglio charity said in an an annual report in April.
In the same month, the Financial Times reported that to avoid a row with Italy, European Union authorities blocked a report urging sanctions against the country over its mistreatment of the Roma.
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