Horror at 'Clockwork Orange' attack on elderly Italian monks

The country's media are comparing the incident, at the San Colombano Belmonte monastery near Turin, to the violence in Anthony Burgess's controversial novel A Clockwork Orange, in which adolescent thugs delight in what they call “ultra-violence”.

A small group of hooded attackers entered the monastery on Tuesday and bound and gagged the monks, the oldest of whom was 86.

A still from the film 'A Clockwork Orange', 1971. Italian media have compared the shocking attack on the monks to the movie

One managed to raise the alarm two hours later when he regained consciousness after being beaten.

"They unleashed an incredible level of violence against them," Gabriele Trivellin, in charge of Franciscan monks in the area, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

"It was wild and gratuitous violence because they did not resist the attack at all."

The youngest monk - 49-year-old Sergio Baldin - is in a coma after suffering severe head injuries. The other three monks, who range in age from 76 to 86, are expected to be released from hospital in a month.

Police believe the motive may have been robbery, as some cash was stolen from the monastery.

But the only object of great value in the building - a golden crown which decorates a statue of the Madonna - was placed behind protective glass after the original was stolen two years ago.