A provincial university librarian cycled for more than 2km with a bomb strapped under the saddle of her bicycle, the latest intended target of the man known as Italy's Unabomber.
For 12 years, he has taunted police in the same way as the US' Ted Kaczynksi, now serving a life sentence. As the details of the Italian bomber's latest, failed operation have emerged, they have indicated that it was perhaps his most bizarre so far.
The intended victim, a 38-year-old librarian at the University of Padua, discovered the bomb on Saturday afternoon. The woman, from Portogruaro, near Venice, who has not been named by police, was quoted in Italian media reports on Monday as saying that she had decided to take her bike out for a ride.
Almost 200m from her parents' home, she heard a rattle coming from the rear wheel.
"I turned around and saw a little package fall to the ground."
The package contained a tube of nitroglycerine. The only reason the bomb had failed to go off was that the contacts of two batteries had rusted in the rain that has poured down on northern Italy in recent days.
The woman had kept her bike in the yard of her parents' home for the two days before she found the bomb. Police believe it is highly unlikely that the bomber, who has never before shown a proclivity for burglary, would have broken in to sabotage the bike.
But for the seven days before that, the bike was resting against a wall at Portogruaro station. The librarian had used it to get to the station to catch a train to Padua, but did not pick it up when she first returned because it was raining.
A week later, she collected the bike and cycled a distance of almost 2.4km. Police are convinced she rode all the way on a bomb. Italy's "Unabomber" has yet to kill, but this year one of his alleged devices blew three fingers off a six-year-old girl.
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