'Baby gangs' use terror tactics - Minnit (5)

(ANSA) -Naples, January 16 - Interior Minister Marco Minniti said after chairing a meeting in Naples on a spate of attacks by youth gangs known as 'baby gangs' that they used "terror methods". He said that all the perpetrators of the latest attacks had been apprehended. Minniti vowed a crackdown on the gangs.
    The interior ministry will "immediately" send 100 police units to patrol the streets in the area, Minniti said.
    "These are acts of unacceptable violence," he said.
    Minniti said Camorra gang members would have their parents' rights rescinded in such cases.
    He also said there would be a zero-tolerance policy on illegal motor scooters.
    Minniti said the ministry had hatched the idea of having police offices in each single municipality in order to fight the crime wave.
    Carabinieri police said earlier they had nabbed seven members of a gang of youths that allegedly conducted 17 robberies near Naples in October and November last year, including four minors.
    Most of the victims of the robberies were the same age as the youths who allegedly staged the heists at bars and railway stations in the province of Naples.
    They allegedly used toys guns to threaten the victims and force them to hand over their cell phones. Two members of the gang were arrested late in November.
    The four minors have been taken to a detention centre, while the other three are in Poggioreale prison, the sources said.
    Interior Minister Minniti chaired the security meeting at the Naples prefect's office following the recent escalation of attacks by gangs of youths in the area.
    A minor was insulted and punched in the face near to Naples' Policlinico metro station late on Sunday, in the latest in the string of attacks by so-called 'baby gangs' of teenagers.
    The victim, a 16-year-old who said he did not know the attackers, suffered a broken nose.
    On Saturday two pupils aged 14 and 15 suffered an unprovoked assault from a gang of around 10 youths armed with chains at the province of Naples town on Pomigliano d'Arco.
    The teens' mobile telephones and money were stolen, but investigators suspect that thirst for violence, rather than theft, was the prime motive.
    "We are going through difficult days that can only be successfully addressed if we are united," said Naples Mayor Luigi de Magistris.
    "Naples will get through it and everyone must do their part.
    "I'm sure we will win this challenge because naples is a city of life, not of death".
    Another case was that of Arturo, a 17-year-old stabbed in the throat in the southern city a week before Christmas.
    Around 800 students took to the streets of Naples, along with de Magistris and Justice Undersecretary Gennaro Migliore, to protest against crime and violence after that attack.
    The boy returned to Naples Cuoco high school on Monday and was greeted by a big banner reading "Welcome back Arturo".
    "I'm embarrassed because I didn't expect so many journalists at my return to school or this reception from my school mates," he said.
    "Now it's my teachers who are waiting for me, more than my companions.
    "I'm excited. This place was one of the things I missed.
    "I want to hurry. I have a lesson".
    There are also reports a gang of youths of North African origin mugged a group of four minors in Turin on the night between Saturday and Sunday.