Giorgio Mattioli, director of the Italian Institute of Culture, part of the Italian foreign mission, was attacked by multiple assailants near Griboyedov Kanal, a few blocks southwest of the Hermitage Museum. The robbers stole 20,000 rubles in cash, documents, car keys, Mattioli's diplomatic passport and a watch.
Mattioli sustained head trauma and was sent to the hospital, RIA-Novosti reported.
This was the second attack on a foreign diplomat in St. Petersburg this week. On Saturday evening, Belgian diplomat Guillaume Albert Nestor Gislam Shokye was robbed of a coat, documents, his mobile phone and a watch on central thoroughfare Nevsky Prospekt, Moi Raion reported.
In 2005 in St. Petersburg, British Ambassador Tony Brenton had his wallet stolen and his wife sustained minor injuries in an attack by five young people aged 15 to 16.
