The 26-year-old man was detained at 2:00 am on the seventh floor of the Milan hospital near the room where Berlusconi, 73, is recovering from a broken nose, facial cuts and two lost teeth suffered on Sunday, police told AFP. “He was coming out of the lift when bodyguards and police immobilised him immediately,” a spokesman said.

“The intruder said he wanted to talk to the prime minister,” the spokesman said. “He did not have an aggressive attitude or any weapon or dangerous object on him. We found hockey sticks in his car.” Police said the man had been treated for mental health troubles. They said Massimo Tartaglia who faces assault charges after Sunday’s attack also had longstanding psychiatric troubles.

The prime minister is recovering after the attacker hurled a souvenir model of Milan’s cathedral into the prime minister’s face.

Berlusconi’s personal doctor Alberto Zangrillo examined him today to decide whether the prime minister can leave hospital as planned. Berlusconi has complained of neck pains disturbing his sleep. Berlusconi spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti said, “The persistence of the pains worry us a bit because the cervical pains (from a pre-existing condition) have gotten worse.” Doctors told Berlusconi to avoid stressful public duties, and he has called off a trip to the Copenhagen climate summit this week and a Christmas Eve trip to L’Aquila, the Italian city where nearly 300 people died in an earthquake

in April. Bonauiti, said a traditional end-of-year news conference may be rescheduled.

“The PM is like a volcano that begins erupting at seven in the morning,” Bonauiti said. “He is a great worker and it will be difficult to keep him away from work.” Zangrillo said however that he must “abstain from all activities that would expose him to public situations, to stress.”