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Italian police arrest 2 Syrians holding fake passports in Rome

Xinhua, November 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Italian police on Friday arrested two Syrian nationals at the Ciampino airport in capital Rome for allegedly holding fake passports, local media reported.

The pair, aged 18 and 19, were trying to board a plane bound for Malta with Norwegian and French passports, according to ANSA news agency.

The arrests came a day after another two Syrian nationals, also found with false passports, were detained at the Orio al Serio airport, close to the city of Bergamo in northern Italy.

Local newspaper L'Eco di Bergamo said the two men, aged 19 and 30, were trying to fly to Malta with Austrian and Norwegian passports.

Police reportedly found images related to the Islamic State (IS) group in their self-phones.

The older man said he was keeping the pictures in memory of his dead brother. The younger one was posing with a submachine gun in one of the photos that he said was an image of his cousin.

Security measures have been tightened up at all Italian airports in the wake of last Friday's terror attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

"There is an evidence of the passage in Italy of someone linked to the Paris massacre, but there is no evidence of these people's activities in Italy," Rome Prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo was quoted as saying by Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper on Friday.

Extraordinary measures around possible targets of terror attacks in Rome and Milan have been stepped up after information were provided by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Metal detectors will be put at the entrances of Colosseum in Rome, local authorities announced on Friday, a day after the capital's prefect Franco Gabrielli said the whole air space over the city will be closed during the Jubilee Year which is set to kick off on Dec. 8.

Meanwhile, suspicious bags and items were signaled in central venues of Rome and Milan on Friday, which prompted the immediate intervention of security forces. They all turned out to be false alarms. Endit