Friday 29 September 2006

Padua builds wall in drugs battle

BBC:

Ring of steel divides Padua

The authorities in the historic northern Italian city of Padua have erected a steel wall around a housing estate notorious for drug-dealing.
The wall, surrounding six apartment blocks, is three metres (10ft) high and runs for 84 metres (275ft).

The area sealed off is home to some 1,500 people, many of whom are immigrants from Africa.
Veneto regional governor Giancarlo Galan condemned what he called the new "Berlin wall".
Padua's Socialist mayor, Flavio Zanonato, described it as an "enclosure" needed to help tackle the drug dealers.

Police are keeping the estate under surveillance, with checkpoints at the new barrier.

... and when I saw the film Banlieue 13 I thought it was fiction!