ROME, Italy

An anarchist group has claimed responsibility for three attempted acts of sabotage targeting railway lines in Italy on Feb. 7, the same day the first competitions of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics were held, Italian media reported.

A message published on a blog identified as “Sottobosko.noblogs,” under the headline “Fire to the Olympics,” said three railway lines were sabotaged and blocked until the afternoon on the morning of Feb. 7, a day after the Games’ opening ceremony.

According to the post, the group carried out the actions in protest against what it described as growing repression by the right-wing coalition government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The message accused authorities of tightening security laws and restricting demonstrations, saying this had pushed the group toward more confrontational forms of protest.

The statement also included a call for the expansion of “armament and conflict” across multiple fronts.

Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said authorities would identify and prosecute those responsible.

“We will do everything to shut down the hideouts of these criminals, to hunt down and track these delinquents wherever they are hiding, to put them in prison and to counter those who defend them,” Salvini wrote in a post on the US social media company X. “Long live the Olympics, a symbol of an Italy that builds, that inspires emotion, that does not give up.”

Earlier the same day, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also commented on the incidents, describing those behind the railway sabotage attempts and an anti-Olympics demonstration in Milan as “enemies of Italy.”

During the protest in Milan, some demonstrators reportedly threw fireworks at security forces, and at least six people were detained, according to local media.

Prosecutors in Bologna are reportedly preparing to open a terrorism investigation into the attempted sabotage of railway lines near the northern cities of Bologna and Pesaro.

Investigators are also examining whether the incidents were intended to mimic acts of sabotage that disrupted train services in France during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

On the morning of Feb. 7, three separate attempts were reported to disrupt rail traffic near Bologna and Pesaro. Later that evening, unrest broke out during the anti-Olympics protest in Milan as tensions escalated.