Italian Catholic priest shot three times on his way to work in Bangladesh

An Italian Catholic priest has been shot several times by gunmen earlier today in northern Bangladesh, in the third attack on foreign workers in the country in the last few months.

Father Parolari Piero, 50, a Catholic missionary and trained doctor from the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions was shot several times as he cycled from his morning prayers at the Suihari Catholic Mission to work.

Three men who rode past him on a motorcycle are reported to have carried out the attack.

He was treated at Dinajpur Medical College Hospital following the attack and was in a serious but stable condition.

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Dharani Kanto, an auto rickshaw driver, told the Reuters news agency that he had taken Father Piero to hospital. "No one was attending to him, so with the help of two other people I rushed him to the hospital," Kanto said.

"He was on his way to the hospital from his residence when unknown attackers shot him in the back," Father Bidya Paul Bormon, a local priest who lives in the same town told ucanews.com.

Bishop Sebastian Tudu of Dinajpur also told ucanews.com: "There are a good number of foreign missionaries working in Dinajpur and the government has been providing police security for them in the churches. Yet, this priest was shot and injured."

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack was the third on foreign aid workers in Bangladesh which is experiencing a rising tide of Islamist violence.

Cesare Tavella, 50, an Italian aid worker was shot dead while jogging in Gulshan, a diplomatic area in Dhaka, on 28 September; while a Japanese man Kunio Hoshi, 66, was shot dead the following week by two gunmen in a village in the Kaunia area of northwestern Rangpur district, about 200 miles north of the capital city Dhaka.

Four secular bloggers have been murdered in Bangladesh this year and a publisher linked to one of them was recently slashed to death.