ROME 

Three women, including a friend of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, were killed on Sunday by a man who opened fire on residents of an apartment block in Rome while they were meeting at a local cafe, authorities said.

The man, 57, was arrested by the police after being blocked and disarmed by other residents after he started shooting at the condominium board meeting at a coffee shop in Rome's northern Fidene neighborhood.

Following the news of the shooting – as three women were confirmed dead and other residents seriously injured – Meloni posted a picture of herself with her friend Nicoletta Golisano, one of the three victims, on her Instagram account.

"For me, she will always be beautiful and happy like this," Meloni wrote. "It is not right to die like this."

The suspect was a man who had already been involved in a series of violent disputes with the residents' board, witnesses told Italian media on Sunday. The man had also been previously reported to authorities for threatening other residents.

"He came into the room, closed the door and shouted 'I'll kill you all' and then started to shoot," one of the people there told Italian news agency Ansa.

Meloni said that a shooting range from which the suspect had illegally taken the gun used in the attack had been closed and placed under investigation by local authorities.

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri called an emergency security meeting for Monday after denouncing "the grave episode of violence that has struck our city."