Three arrested over death of Italian basketball fans' bus driver

ROME (Reuters) -Three "ultra" fans of an Italian basketball team have been arrested after a driver of a bus carrying rival supporters was killed when stones were thrown at the vehicle, Italian police said.

The death of Raffaele Marianella, 65, has shocked Italians who have grown wearily accustomed to violence associated with soccer fans.

Marianella was the co-driver on the bus and was not at the wheel when it came under a hail of stones and bricks as it transported fans of the Pistoia Basket 2000 team home following a match on Sunday against RSR Sebastiani Rieti in Serie A2, the second tier of the sport in Italy.

He died after being hit by a large stone that came through the windscreen.

The three suspects, who are being held in jail, are members of an "ultra" group of RSR Sebastiani Rieti fans, police in Rieti said.

They were traced after police escorting the fan bus on the outskirts of Rieti in central Italy stopped a car carrying another group away from the scene.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned the attack as "an unacceptable and senseless act of violence."

(Writing by Keith Weir, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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