Police capture 'The Wolf' after 10-day manhunt

Italian police captured the suspected killer of a policeman in a shoot-out today in which a young woman was briefly held hostage near Rome’s Circus Maximus.The suspect, Luciano Liboni, terrorised the city a week ago by firing at police and forcing at gunpoint a motorist with his children to drive him in their car so he could escape.

Major Giovanni Arcangeli told SKY TG24 TV that Liboni grabbed a young woman and started firing when he spotted police officers approaching him near a subway stop across from the Circus Maximus, an ancient, grassy field frequented by tourists. Liboni was wounded in the shoot-out and taken to San Giovanni Hospital, Carabinieri police Col. Vincenzo Conte said. The identity of the hostage wasn’t immediately released.Conte said neither passers-by or police were wounded in the shoot-out, which occurred just before noon.

Italian news reports said Liboni was shot in the head.The subway stop, outside the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Agency, is heavily used on weekdays during work hours, but the area was not crowded today. Liboni’s photograph has been stuck on police dashboards and shown on TV nearly every day since the July 22 shooting of a Carabinieri officer near the Adriatic during a check of his documents. On July 24, police stepped up the manhunt, guarding subway exits, manning roadblocks and patrolling Italian capital in helicopters after Liboni terrorised Rome with a shoot-out near the main train station when police closed in on him. Liboni’s ability to strike and flee earned him the nickname “The Wolf.”