Berlusconi released after receiving stitches due to fall

MILAN – Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi received stitches to his upper lip after falling outside a restaurant where he was celebrating his elder son’s birthday, the news agency ANSA reported Saturday.

TV images showed Berlusconi holding a cloth over his mouth as he left the Madonnina clinic Saturday afternoon.

The 80-year-old, three-time former premier reportedly fell Friday evening at a restaurant in the Ligurian port city of Portofino, returning to Milan to be treated at the private clinic.

His doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, told ANSA that the injury was not serious.

Berlusconi’s Forza Italia movement said he cancelled plans to attend a rally in Tuscany due to the injury.

Berlusconi left office in 2011 and is currently barred from running for office due to a tax fraud conviction. He remains active in politics as the leader of his conservative movement, as well as his business empire that includes Italy’s three main private TV channels.

Zangrillo operated on Berlusconi last June to replace a malfunctioning heart valve.