Concrete barriers are being installed in Italy to stop terrorist trucks attacking its most popular landmarks after the Barcelona attack.
The action is being taken amid renewed jihadist threats that Italy is the next target.
Barriers appeared at the weekend in a number of streets in central Milan to add to blocks already set up to stop terrorists driving vans into the city’s frequently crowded Vittorio Emanuele shopping gallery.
Busy tourist streets in Palermo are also due to get new barriers and Italian media reported that concrete blocks, or at least large concrete flower pots, will guard the entrance to Via Del Corso, Rome’s main shopping street and Via dei Fori Imperiali, the wide avenue laid by Benito Mussolini through the Roman Forum.
Security was tightened yesterday at the Angelus prayer held by the Pope at St Peter’s Square in addition to the barriers set up to stop cars approaching pilgrims along Via della Conciliazione, The Times reported.
The measures come after a string of attacks in Europe by terrorists mowing down pedestrians in vans or lorries.
Last week’s attack in Barcelona killed 13, including seven-year-old British boy Julian Cadman after he became separated from his mother on La Ramblas.
People from 34 countries were wounded in the attacks on Spanish city’s busy tourist thoroughfare and the resort of Cambrils where a 61-year-old Spanish woman also died in a second assault.
Spanish police said that the attackers had originally planned to load three lorries with bombs and attack targets across Barcelona.
But an explosion at their bomb factory in Alcanar, about 125 miles south of the city, left the group without its deadly cargo, so they used a van to drive into crowds instead.
Italian interior minister Marco Minniti said: “I am amazed that a van could have driven undisturbed down La Ramblas in Barcelona.
“It is strange there weren’t extra security measures in a site so crowded with tourists and residents.”
More:
Thirteen reported dead after van hits crowds in Barcelona
Five terror suspects killed by police in second Spanish attack