A car bomb planted by robbers raiding a security van in Rome early today killed a security guard and injured another, police said.
A group of five unidentified men detonated the bomb by remote control as security guards carrying money for deposit left a telephone systems company on a commercial estate in southern Rome.
The gang fired Kalashnikov rifles and grabbed some 22 million lire ($10,200) in cash before driving off, police said.
"As far as we know, one of the guards is dead and another is injured," said a spokesman for the carabinieri military police.
The armed robbery was unusually violent for the Italian capital, where such attacks are rare.
Security forces are on high alert after a bomb blast on April 10th which blew apart the entrance of a building housing an Italian-American institute in Rome. A separate bomb was found in the northern city of Turin on the same day and was destroyed.
Political leaders have warned the country to brace itself for more possible attacks in the run-up to the May 13th general election, and some politicians say they have received death threats.
But police chief Nicolo D'Angelo told the Italian news agency ANSA today: "This was almost certainly carried out by a group of professionals. It was not yet clear whether the security guard had died from the force of the blast or from gunshot wounds."