Italy marks 30th anniversary of murder of anti-mafia judge Falcone

Italian judge Giovanni Falcone (second left) was killed on May 23, 1992 by a bomb which exploded under his motorcade as it drove along a highway outside Palermo, Sicily

ROME: Thirty years ago, the Sicilian mafia killed judge Giovanni Falcone with a bomb so powerful it was registered by experts monitoring volcanic tremors from Etna on the other side of the island.

The explosion, which ripped through a stretch of motorway near Palermo at 5:56 pm on May 23, 1992 sent shockwaves across Italy, but also signalled the start of the mafia's decline.