Roundup: More security forces in Italy's Naples, after emergency meeting on "baby-gangs" violence

by Alessandra Cardone

ROME, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Italian authorities held an emergency meeting on security Tuesday, and would deploy more police forces, following an increase in assaults by so-called "baby-gangs" across the country.

Interior Minister Marco Minniti chaired the meeting in the southern city of Naples, where many of the latest aggressions perpetrated by minors occurred.

Extra police would be deployed across and around the city, and especially some 100 officers in the areas where youths spend their leisure time, Naples-based Il Mattino daily cited Minniti as saying after the meeting.

"We will not allow baby-gangs to change the daily habits of young people in Naples," Minniti was quoted as saying.

On Sunday, a 16-year-old was insulted and beaten by a group of youths near a subway station in the latest episode involving Naples. He suffered a broken nose and other minor injuries, but was not robbed, and said he did not know the identity of his assailants, nor the reason for the attack, Ansa news agency reported.

Just 24 hours before, two kids -- aged 14 and 15 -- were beaten and robbed by about ten minors armed with chains in the small town of Pomigliano d'Arco near Naples.

Seven of the alleged attackers in this case, including four minors, were arrested on Monday evening, local media reported hours before the emergency meeting. Police suspected them to be involved in at least 17 street robberies against young people in about two months.

The interior minister hailed the arrests, comparing the baby-gangs to the most dangerous criminal groups."I would not define the baby-gangs as terrorists, but their methods have terroristic features: that is, hitting just where they are, randomly," Il Mattino quoted Minniti as saying.

A more serious attack had occurred in Naples on Dec. 18: a 17-year-old was stabbed in the throat and chest by at least four people, all of them believed to be minors (including a 12-year-old) but one.

Hospitalized in critical conditions, the young victim survived and made his return to school this week, welcomed by fellow pupils and teachers.

Police unveiled CCTV footage showing the gang's moves at the time and place of the attack, and one of the alleged assailants, aged 15, was arrested on Christmas Eve.

Not all of the latest aggressions perpetrated by minors occurred in Naples, however. In the northern city of Turin, for example, four people were assaulted and robbed by a group of teenagers last week.

In a separate episode in the same city, at least four minors beat a woman in a mall, after having been reproached for their bad language.

Another serious attack involved a 15-year-old boy assaulted by at least a dozen teenagers near the subway in Chiaiano at the outskirts of Naples on Friday.

The victim, who again was not robbed, underwent a surgery to remove his ruptured spleen.

Authorities were visibly worried by such escalation of juvenile violence, which police chief Antonio De Iesu in Naples called "absurd and groundless."

Luigi De Magistris -- the mayor of the city and a former prosecutor -- was among those calling for stronger law enforcement measures. He took part in the emergency meeting on Tuesday, and asked the central government to increase "the certainty of the punishment, and the territorial control" by police.

Earlier this week, De Magistris also said mayors would need more powers and resources to better tackle the phenomenon at both security and social level. Enditem