Italy arrests 142 people in security sweep

Italian police have arrested 142 people, most of them illegal immigrants, and seized a small amount of explosives from an Italian criminal during a 48-hour security sweep around Milan, authorities said yesterday.

The operation, carried out after the London blasts, focused on sites considered sensitive in Italy's financial capital, including railway stations and subway lines.

Police said the arrests were for criminal charges, such as theft and drugs possession - not for terrorism.

Authorities seized about 1.5 kg of explosives from the home of an Italian ex convict, along with a pistol. His past crimes include burglary, police said. Col. Cosimo Piccino said the sweep, involving more than 2,000 officers, was meant "to guarantee greater security after the London attacks and to combat illegal immigration and street crime".

Police said 83 illegal immigrants were among those arrested. Expulsion orders were issued for 52 people. Italy, a staunch US ally in Iraq, has received two threats from purported Islamic militants in the wake of the London attacks by suspected Al-Qaeda bombers. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said his nation is at risk.

Italy has dispatched extra police to guard public transport, heightened security at airports and said more than 13,000 sensitive sites were under special guard.

Italy has long faced domestic terrorism cases and yesterday a small package of explosives was found on the back of a girl's bicycle near the lagoon city of Venice. The bomb, which fell from the bicycle without exploding, bore the hallmarks of Italy's long-sought "Unabomber", who has injured 20 people in the past decade.

In a sign of heightened tensions, generally, part of a terminal at Rome's international airport was briefly evacuated yesterday morning when a passenger on a Delta airlines flight to the United States left his baggage unattended.