A Tunisian and a Palestinian were on Tuesday awaiting deportation from Italy after they attacked soldiers guarding a cathedral in Rome and tried to grab their guns, screaming "Allah is Great".
The men, aged 40 and 30, were arrested after they assaulted soldiers guarding the Santa Maria Maggiore cathedral near Rome's central rail station late last Friday and allegedly attacked police officers called to the scene and insulted them.
The two men, of no fixed abode, were charged with resisting arrest and intention to commit an act of terrorism, issued with deportation orders and transferred to a migrant expulsion centre in the southern Italian city of Bari.
During questioning at a police station in Rome after their arrest, they were said to have launched a tirade against European countries and their security forces, speaking in Italian and Arabic.
It emerged that previous deportation orders had been issued to both men.
The soldiers guarding Santa Maria Maggiore cathedral were among hundreds deployed to patrol the capital in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks in November.
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