Security clampdown ahead of G8 Summit

ITALY: Sharpshooters took up positions Monday in a “red zone” surrounding this week’s Group of Eight Summit venue in central Italy as part of an imposing security apparatus.

Authorities hope anti-globalisation protesters will stay away from the summit venue in L’Aquila — a devastated city still mourning the 299 victims of an April 6 earthquake — and have beefed up security in Rome as well.

From Monday, no one without accreditation to the summit will be allowed within a three-kilometre (two-mile) radius of the venue, a military academy that sprawls over some 45 hectares (110 acres), about the same area as the Vatican.

The “red zone” is under round-the-clock surveillance by sharpshooters.

Besides fighter jets and helicopters, drones will help patrol the area during the three-day summit starting Wednesday, according to Italian press reports.

Some 15,000 soldiers and police have been deployed as authorities hope to avert a repeat of the violent scenes that marred the 2001 G8 summit, also hosted by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in northwestern Genoa.

Rome, Tuesday, AFP