Four minors arrested after machete kidnapping of 19-year-old in Arese park near Milan

The attack at parco Blu

On the evening of 5 August 2026, a group of five youths approached two 19-year-old Italians at the parco Blu on viale Sempione in Arese, a town in the province of Milan. The group was armed with a machete. They surrounded the two young men, hooded one of them with a plastic bag and took him away by force. The other was ordered to find drugs quickly and bring them back as ransom; the threat was that the hostage would be killed if the demand was not met. The episode unfolded in daylight, around eight in the evening, in a park described by il Giornale as an orderly family-oriented green space near one of Europe's largest shopping centres.

The friend who ran for help

Rather than seeking drugs, the 19-year-old who had been left free ran to the carabinieri station in Arese and reported everything. Carabinieri analysed his friend's mobile phone signal to locate where the kidnapping was taking place. They moved in and found the victim in another nearby green area: still hooded with a plastic bag, stripped of his belongings and bearing several injuries. When the uniformed officers appeared, the group scattered, but four of them were caught immediately.

The arrested minors

The four arrested are a 15-year-old, a 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds, all born in Italy. They were taken to the Beccaria juvenile penal institute in Milan on the orders of the juvenile prosecutor's office. The charges are kidnapping for extortion purposes, robbery in concert, illegal possession of a weapon and bodily harm. According to ANSA, the group is believed to have had the support of additional accomplices whom investigators are now working to identify.

The victim's condition

The kidnapped 19-year-old was taken to the hospital in Garbagnate Milanese. He was discharged with a prognosis of six days for recovery, meaning his injuries were judged curable within that period. il Giornale noted the contrast between the relatively short medical prognosis and the ordeal of being held with a plastic bag over his head at the mercy of strangers barely younger than himself.

Ongoing investigation

The carabinieri of the Arese company, in coordination with the juvenile judicial authority in Milan, are conducting further investigations to identify all other individuals involved and to reconstruct the full sequence of events. Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that the arrested minors acted together with accomplices still being identified. The case has drawn attention because Arese is not typically associated with youth violence in local news chronicles.