A 31-year-old Italian woman was one of 12 people feared to have been killed in the Berlin massacre.
Fabrizia Di Lorenzo’s father said last night that he had given up hope of seeing his daughter again after her mobile phone was found at the scene of the attack. Her family flew to Berlin as the authorities confirmed that six of the dead who have been identified so far were German.
None of the other six has been named, although family members identified Lukasz Urban, a 37-year-old Polish lorry driver, as the man found dead in the cabin of the vehicle.
Three families have told the Hungarian embassy in Berlin that they have not been able to contact their relatives. An Israeli woman, whose husband is being treated in hospital, was also unaccounted for.
There were not thought to be any Britons among the dead or seriously injured. That could change, however, as the situation is in flux and 18 of the 48 wounded were still in a serious condition.
Advertisement
Ms Di Lorenzo, from Sulmona in central Italy, worked for 4Flow, a German logistics company, where she was responsible for organising deliveries around Europe. Her LinkedIn page said she spoke German, English, Italian and French. The Italian media said that she had not turned up for work yesterday.
She studied languages and international relations at universities in Rome and Bologna and had also done an Erasmus course at Berlin’s Free University in 2006 and 2007.
Her last post on Twitter, where she was identified as “Fraulein F”, was dated December 5. It was a snippet from an Italian film where a university professor advises the young protagonist to leave Italy, where nothing ever changes. “Here everything stays immobile, the same, in the hands of the dinosaurs,” the professor said. She accompanied the film extract with a comment expressing disappointment at the referendum defeat of Matteo Renzi, the prime minister, the day before.
Angelino Alfano, the Italian foreign minister, confirmed that there may be an Italian victim. “We are waiting for information from the German magistrates,” he said.
Ms Di Lorenzo’s father said he had little hope. “We realised it was all over last night at half past one. It was us who called the foreign ministry,” Gaetano Di Lorenzo, who works for the post office in Sulmona, told the Ansa news agency. “We used our own channels, but from what my son tells me from Berlin, there can’t be any more doubt. He’s there with my wife waiting for the DNA results. We’re waiting for confirmation, but I have no illusions.”
Advertisement
The Israeli embassy in Berlin confirmed that it was trying to locate the woman whose husband was in hospital. He had undergone surgery and was breathing on a ventilator.
