Security in Rome will be
heightened after the Barcelona terror attack and there will be
checks on car rentals and any vans heading for the city centre,
sources said Friday.
Security around Spanish targets and traditional "sensitive"
areas will be stepped up, they said.
Italy will boost security measures at sensitive targets and
areas where people tend to gather after the Barcelona and
Cambrils terror attacks that killed a total of 14 people,
Interior Minister Marco Minniti said.
The interior ministry said attention was "extremely high" but
the "threat level" had not changed.
Minniti was speaking after a meeting of the Strategic
Anti-Terrorism Analysis Committee.
Premier Paolo Gentiloni telephoned Spanish Premier Mariano
Rajoy to voice Italy's condolences, friendship and solidarity
over the attacks, government sources said.
Gentiloni stressed unity and firmness towards terror, which
will never beat freedom and democracy.
Rajoy assured the utmost collaboration with Italy and the
other countries hit by the attacks.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella wrote to Spanish King
Felipe VI, voicing "horror and repulsion".
Spain and Italy were united in a "common pain" over the
attack, Mattarella said.
He voiced "great concern" over the "dramatic" attack, which
was "further, execrable proof of the cowardice of the
terrorists".
Mattarella said Italy was determined to work with Spain, its
EU partners and the whole international community, in a "fight,
without quarter being given, against terrorism and all forms of
violent extremism, in defence of the common values and
democratic freedoms, as well as the security of our countries".
Mattarella also sent a message to the families of the
Barcelona terror victims saying "in Barcelona, in the heart of
Europe, wicked men struck innocent people and families, united
only by the desire and the right to live serenely. The
terrorists tore a community of many nationalities, defenceless,
made up of innocents, women, men, children. They attacked life
and co-existence. Terrorism of an Islamist matrix and terrorists
will not go unpunished".
Premier Paolo Gentiloni tweeted "#Barcelona Italy remembers
Bruno Gulotta and Luca Russo and rallies round their families.
Freedom will beat the barbarity of terrorism".
Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano tweeted "we are close to the
families of the victims and the injured in Barcelona. We will
react united in defence of Europe".
Pope Francis condemned the attack as an "inhuman act" and
"blind violence, a grave offence to the Creator", in a
telegramme of condolences sent to Barcelona Archbishop Juan José
Omella y Omella.
Francis said he was praying that the international community
would work "with determination for peace and harmony in the
world".
The Colosseum's lights will be switched off from 22:00 to
22:30 tonight in a sign of solidarity with the city of Barcelona
and mourning for the 14 victims of the terror attacks, Culture
Minister Dario Franceschini said.
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