A fire at Elon Musk’s Tesla store in Rome on Monday destroyed 17 cars. Responding to the incident, Musk has described it as an act of “terrorism”. Drone pictures of the fire showed burned cars in a parking lot, with two rows of cars facing each other and the third row further away.
Tesla cars have faced vandalism in several countries because of Musk‘s right-wing views.
The tech billionaire, who also owns the social media platform X, has openly supported far-right groups in Europe.
It is yet to be determined by Italy’s special police force, Digos, if the activists had started the fire at the Tesla dealership on the eastern edge of Rome early Monday morning.
According to the fire brigade, no injury was reported but the dealership was partially damaged.
Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party, also took to X and expressed his support for Musk calling it “too much unjustified hatred” for Tesla. He further added that the season of hate must come to an end. “My solidarity goes out to Elon Musk and to all the workers who have been threatened and attacked,” Salvini said.
On Monday, two Tesla stores and cars were vandalised in Sweden also. According to multiple media reports, orange paint was sprayed on a Tesla store in Malmo. Swedish police arrested four people and are investigating why they did it, according to reports from several local media outlets, including the public broadcaster SVT.