An Italian businessman was hailed a hero last night for taking a bullet through the cheek as he tackled a gunman, ending an attack that killed three people including a friend of Italy’s prime minister.

Claudio Campiti, 57, was engaged in his assault on a residents’ association meeting near his home when a local travel agent dived on top of him and wrestled him to the ground.

Silvio Paganini, 67, last night described how he leapt on to the gunman and subdued him before he could continue his rampage.”

He was yelling ‘you’re all mafiosi, I’ll kill you all,” Paganini told Corriere della Sera newspaper. “They were moments of pure terror. Campiti fired his first shot, then a second which killed a woman, then another shot at a third woman.

”At that point, I saw him turn towards me. I leapt on top of him. He could have killed me.”

The alleged killer had at least 150 more rounds and a second magazine in his pocket for the Glock pistol he had taken from a nearby shooting range when he was stopped. Campiti had shot dead three women, one of whom was a friend of Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister. Four other people were wounded, one of whom was in critical condition yesterday.

Despite being shot in the cheek, Paganini is expected to make a full recovery.

 “He’s well. He was very lucky because the bullet went through his cheek and did not hit any vital organs or arterial systems,” said Prof Francesco Franceschi, head of the emergency department at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome. “He’s exhausted and very sad for what happened but little by little he will recover.”

Alessio D’Amato, a regional politician in charge of health, said: “Thanks to his actions, a much higher death toll was averted.” Campiti reportedly had a history of disagreements with members of the residents’ consortium, which managed the property in which he lived.

He inhabited the partly abandoned skeleton of a villa overlooking Lake Turano in the mountains 80km northeast of Rome and had complained about the lack of electricity and other services.

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On his Facebook page, there were images of Hitler and Mussolini and mottos from Italy’s Fascist era. It was also reported that he had been left deeply upset after his 14-year-old son died in a sledging accident in the Dolomites a decade ago.

He burst into the residents’ meeting, which was being held in a local bar, and allegedly shouted: “I’ll kill you all.”

The firing range from which he obtained the Glock has been placed under investigation. Police were examining the facility’s CCTV footage and its signing in and out system.

”We know that he went to the firing range, where he had been a member for several years, and from there came away with the weapon,” said Bruno Frattasi, Rome’s police chief.”Investigations are underway, the magistrates will establish who was responsible.”

Campiti is now accused of three counts of murder.