Man critically injured in Udine screwdriver attack as police search for suspect

The assault on via Castions di Strada

On the evening of Friday, 4 September 2026, emergency authorities responded to a violent street assault in the northern Italian city of Udine. The incident took place along via Castions di Strada as a 61-year-old man of Moroccan origin was returning home on foot after buying groceries. An assailant launched a sudden ambush against the resident in the street, using a screwdriver as a weapon to deliver multiple sharp strikes. Early accounts of the attack noted discrepancies regarding the physical wounds, with initial emergency reports describing multiple puncture injuries to the chest, while subsequent police findings detailed a severe blow delivered directly to the victim's head. The victim collapsed onto the ground in critical condition, left incapacitated in the street before neighbors could intervene.

Conflicting casualty reports and medical response

Residents living in nearby homes on via Castions di Strada discovered the injured man lying on the ground and contacted emergency dispatchers through the 112 emergency phone line. The regional medical operations center, Sores Fvg, immediately dispatched an ambulance and a rapid medical support car to deliver intensive emergency treatment at the scene. Initial reports from emergency responders and news agencies stated that the victim was a woman who had sustained multiple chest strikes and had died during ambulance transit to the hospital emergency department. Official law enforcement statements later corrected the record, confirming that the victim was a 61-year-old man. Paramedics and attending police officers managed to stabilise the injured man at the scene before transferring him to the Santa Maria della Misericordia hospital in Udine, where he was admitted in life-threatening and desperate condition.

Suspect identification and escape into nearby fields

Investigating officers examining the scene connected the street ambush to a domestic dispute involving the victim's immediate family. Police identified the primary suspect as the former partner of the 61-year-old victim's sister, noting that the individual is believed to be another foreign national. Immediately after inflicting the screwdriver wounds on the victim, the assailant fled the scene on foot across adjacent agricultural fields bordering the road. The suspect managed to disappear into the darkness across the open terrain before law enforcement units arrived at the scene. Italian police and Carabinieri officers promptly initiated a coordinated manhunt across the surrounding municipal area to locate and apprehend the fugitive.

Ongoing police investigation and site examination

Officers from the Carabinieri provincial command of Udine and the State Police established an immediate cordon around the scene of the assault on via Castions di Strada. Authorities closed the entire street section and cordoned off surrounding access points to secure forensic evidence and allow technical specialists to conduct detailed site examinations. Investigators conducted preliminary interviews with neighborhood residents who had witnessed the aftermath or placed the initial emergency calls to the 112 service. Carabinieri and police units are working to determine the precise sequence of the attack, verify the exact motive behind the family dispute, and locate the screwdriver used in the assault. Law enforcement patrols remain deployed across Udine to track the suspect's escape route through the surrounding fields.