Italy's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo and two other people were killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy in the eastern part of the country, the Italian foreign ministry and local officials have confirmed. 

The convoy was set upon near the town of Kanyamahoro, a few kilometres north of the regional capital Goma, at around 10:15 a.m. local time (8:15 a.m. GMT) and was part of a kidnap attempt, according to officials from the Virunga National Park, near the DRC's border with Uganda. 

The Italian ambassador, Luca Attanasio, and a military policeman traveling with him were killed, the Italian foreign ministry said in a statement. The third person killed was a driver, according to diplomatic sources.

"It is with deep sorrow that the foreign ministry confirms the death today in Goma of the Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Luca Attanasio, and of a policemen from the Carabinieri," the statement read.

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Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio also expressed his "great dismay and immense sorrow" and cut short a meeting in Brussels with his EU counterparts to return to Rome. 

"The circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet known and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened," Di Maio said, paying tribute to the victims, who he called "two servants of the state."  

According to the Italian foreign ministry, the ambassador and the policemen were part of a convoy of MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC. 

A diplomat in Kinshasa said Attanasio was with a convoy of the UN's World Food Programme when it came under fire near Goma. 

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, with no immediate claim of responsibility.

According to the ministry website, Attanasio, 43, had been Italy's head of mission in Kinshasa since 2017 and was made ambassador in 2019. He joined the diplomatic service in 2003 and had previously served in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria. 

Many armed groups operate in and around Virunga, which lies along DRC's frontiers with Rwanda and Uganda and they have repeatedly attacked Virunga rangers, including six who were killed in an ambush last month.