Carabinieri stop 14-year-old student planning knife attack on teacher in Lamezia Terme

Discovery of the plot

A 14-year-old student at the Nicotera-Costabile comprehensive school in the Sambiase district of Lamezia Terme was stopped by Carabinieri after preparing a knife attack against his Italian teacher. The student, who comes from a family of Moroccan origin, harboured resentment toward the teacher after being held back at the end of the previous school year, a decision he refused to accept. According to details initially reported by La Gazzetta del Sud, the teenager discussed the planned assault in a Telegram group with classmates. Before executing the plan, the boy carried a blade onto the campus and hid the weapon inside the school restrooms.

Student reports and police response

The plot collapsed when members of the Telegram group recognized the danger of the messages. One classmate, distressed by the conversation, told his parents, who contacted law enforcement, while other students directly alerted adults on campus. Officers from the Carabinieri of Lamezia Terme and the Sambiase station arrived at the school on Tuesday morning, 22 September 2026, securing the building and stopping the teenager before any violence occurred. During a subsequent search of the boy's home, Carabinieri officers confiscated his mobile phone and the clothing he had worn in photos on social media.

The school principal, Maria Angela Bilotti, attributed the successful intervention to the willingness of pupils to speak out against threats.

“The general system worked. What worked was the network, especially of the classmates. These boys saw this strange situation and immediately reported it to an adult, and so essentially the plan was triggered. We do 360-degree work against the code of silence, bullying, and violence in general, so we are pleased because we are working well. I thank the police because they came yesterday morning and made sure nothing happened.”

Context of recent school attacks

The event in Calabria followed another classroom attack on Friday, 18 September 2026, at the Giovanni Verga middle school in Rome. In that case, a 13-year-old student used pepper spray and a knife against 66-year-old humanities teacher Isabella Marsilio, an educator with over 40 years of teaching experience. The Rome attacker was disarmed by another 13-year-old classmate of Congolese origin before inflicting further injuries. Rome investigators identified that the youth had consumed violent online material, prompting police to search for digital instigators behind the attack.

Judicial confidentiality and school safety

The targeted Italian teacher in Lamezia Terme indicated after the incident that she initially could not believe the threat before realizing the potential danger hours later. Judicial authorities and the Carabinieri maintain strict confidentiality over the case due to the suspect's age, with technical examinations continuing on the seized digital device. School administrators confirmed that preventative educational programs regarding bullying, student distress, and the code of silence will continue across the institution.