(ANSA) - A new barrier will soon ring the Colosseum as part of tighter security measures being implemented across Italy in the wake of last month's terror attacks in London. Rome authorities, who made the decision during a special security and terrorism meeting on Thursday, also agreed to step up policing and surveillance at Italy's most famous monument.
Extra personnel will patrol a new security zone between the barrier and the ancient walls, while a system of CCTV cameras will monitor the monument day and night. Metal detectors have already been installed at the entrances of the 2,000-year-old amphitheatre. Delegates at the meeting, which was chaired by Rome Prefect Achille Serra, also agreed to beef up security at the capital's museums.
The decisions came on the day that three major planks in the government's new package of security measures came into force.
Under the regulations, owners of Internet cafes will have to check the identification of clients and keep a record of their details and the computer they used. Clients without official ID will not be able to use public Internet points.
The regulations also affect flight schools. In response to the 2001 attacks in the US, all new students require clearance from the provincial police chief before they can start training. Finally, the measures tighten up existing rules on the transport, import and sale of explosives and detonators, which can now only be used by the armed forces and police.
The regulations are part of a package of measures drawn up by Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu and approved by parliament at the start of August. The police are now allowed to hold terrorism suspects for 24 hours instead of the previous 12, and it is easier to expel suspects seen as dangerous.
Authorities will be able to award residence permits to illegal immigrants who help uncover terrorist activity and investigators have greater powers to monitor phone calls and emails. They also have the right to remove hair or use saliva for identification purposes without a suspects' consent. Controls at all Italy's airports, railways stations and tourist attractions have been boosted since the London attacks on July 7, in which 56 people died, including the four suicide bombers.
The alarm was heightened after one of the key suspects in the failed July 21 attacks, Ethiopian-born Hamdi Issac, was arrested at his brother's house in Rome last month. Italy, a firm ally of US President George W. Bush in the war on Iraq, has received numerous online threats calling on it to withdraw its 3,000 troops from Iraq. A joint report by the country's highest intelligence and security chiefs noted that 141 threats had been made against Italy over the last six months, 108 of which relating to specific targets.
The report, which was delivered to Pisanu during a security summit on Monday, concluded that the risk of a terrorist attack in Italy was still "very high." Meanwhile, the government has also unveiled plans for major anti-terror drills in Italy's largest cities. Rome and Milan are expected to be the first affected, with drills starting in September.
The operations, which will be coordinated by Pisanu in person, will test how well public order is maintained and the response of emergency services. While Italy's emergency services have been tested in terrorism drills before, these have only involved individual units and nothing has been carried out on this scale before.
The drills will be staged at rail stations, metro stops, airports and tourist attractions, and will involve police, the civil protection, firefighters and the medical services. The drills, which were announced at the weekend, sparked immediate media speculation that the government had information of a specific threat. But Premier Silvio Berlusconi brushed off these concerns, insisting that Italy was no more at risk than any other European nation.
"This is an alert that affects all Western countries," he said. "There is no individual country that can say it is more or less at risk." Describing the risk of a terrorist attack as extremely "limited", he added: "quite frankly, you're more likely to hurt yourself at home than get caught up in an incident of this kind."
