Modena’s Mayor Massimo Mezzetti said it appeared the driver “deliberately drove on to the pavement, hitting several people and crashing into a shop window”.
“He then got out of his car and brandished a knife,” Mezzetti said.
Five women and three men were injured.
The mayor said the suspect was born in the province of Bergamo, close to Milan. He lives in the province of Modena.
Italy’s far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-immigrant League party, named the suspect on X as Salim El Koudri, describing him as a “second-generation criminal”.
Italian media say the economics graduate is unemployed and has no criminal record.
