Bird flu behind family murder

2006-02-14 12:41

Rome - An Italian lorry driver who made a living out of transporting dead chickens brutally killed his wife and daughter and then committed suicide after running out of business because of the bird flu scare, daily La Repubblica reported on Tuesday.

Claudio Rubello, 49, used a bricklayer's hammer to kill his wife and his 10-year-old daughter Jennifer in their sleep. He then seriously injured his two teenage sons before killing himself with a kitchen knife.

Witnesses say Rubello had fallen into depression after being told his services would no longer be required.

"He was very worried because we had told him that we would be needing much less of him because of the crisis that has hit our business," a former colleague in the road haulage business that used to employ Rubello told La Repubblica.

Neighbours described him as "a normal, hardworking man" but were said to have become unhappy that he would park his car full of dead chickens near their homes, La Repubblica reported.

The Italian poultry industry has suffered from declining sales due to the outbreak of bird flu, first detected on Saturday.

Experts say there is at present little danger of animal-to-human infection but fear that H5N1 could evolve into a strain that could be passed from human to human, not just from birds to human as is currently the case, sparking a human flu pandemic. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA