Brindisi mayor links school attack to mafia. YouTube/BrindisiReport and Reuters

A bomb has exploded in front of a school in the southern Italian town of Brindisi, killing one girl and injuring seven other pupils.

The device went off as students were arriving at the Francesca Morvillo Falcone vocational school at around 8am (6am GMT).

The school is named after the anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and his wife, who were killed by a mafia bomb in Sicily 20 years ago this weekend.

But authorities said it was unclear if there was an organised crime link to the school blast. As yet, no one has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Three days ago, government officials announced security was being stepped up throughout the country after a shooting that wounded a nuclear energy official, several threats against tax officials and small explosive devices sent to the offices of a tax collection agency.

In Brindisi, the local civil protection agency official Fabiano Amati said a female student had died of her wounds despite attempts to save her, and seven other injured students had been admitted to hospital. Sky TG24 TV said the victim was a 16-year-old girl.

Officials initially said the device had been left in a bin outside the Morvillo Falcone school. But the Italian news agency Ansa, reporting from Brindisi, later said the device had been placed on a low wall that rings the school.

Public high schools in Italy hold classes on Saturday mornings.

The bombing also follows a number of attacks against Italian officials and government buildings by a group of anarchists, which has prompted authorities to assign bodyguards for 550 individuals and deploy 16,000 law enforcement officers nationwide.

Austerity measures, spending cuts and new and higher taxes, all part of premier Mario Monti's plan to save Italy from succumbing to the debt crisis roiling Greece, have angered many citizens, and social tensions have increased.