Italian attack leads to threat of 'war'
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• Italian truck drivers have been threatened with violence after a UK owner-driver was beaten up and had his truck hijacked in Italy last weei, Stewart Warrender, of Stockport, Cheshire was attacked in the early hours of Friday 15 November when he stopped to rest in a motorway layby between Turin and Milan.
During his three-hour ordeal he was hit on the head with a metal bar, threatened with a knife, had his thumb sliced, and was tied up.
• He then pretended to be unconscious and his attackers sprinkled glass in his eyes and rubbed it in. "Trying to pretend I was unconscious while they were doing this was very diffi
cult," he says. His trailer and £1,000 was stolen and he was left in his cab.
The retaliatory threat against Italian drivers was made in an anonymous letter received by Commercial Motor this week and posted from Chelmsford, Essex. It says that unless Warrender is compensated 10 times over for the attack by 14 December then "a state of war will be declared upon any vehicle bearing Italian licence plates."
Warrender, who was shocked to hear of the letter, says: "This is completely irrational and I would hate anyone to get hurt because of what happened to me. It's the last thing we want."
Warrender was carrying a groupage load of chemicals.