[ADN Kronos] Italian police on Tuesday arrested at least 32 people amid tight security ahead of Wednesday's G8 meeting in the quake-stricken city of L'Aquila. Twenty-seven anti-globalisation activists were detained in the Italian capital Rome and five French youths were arrested in Pettino near the site of the summit.Elsewhere, five French youths armed with clubs and batons were arrested by police on Tuesday in the town of Pettino in the central region of Abruzzo. The French nationals were arrested near the 'Red Zone', an off-limits area for traffic and and pedestrians near the summit location.
"The van was stopped while it was travelling on a road in Pettino," Giovanni Di Niso, police operations commander in L'Aquila told Adnkronos. "Right now surveillance levels in the surrounding areas are quite high."
In Rome, 27 anti-globalisation activists were detained on Tuesday after they set on fire large rubbish bins in the centre of the capital. They were among an estimated 150 protesters, some of them had their face covered and wore helmets, when they took to the streets.
In June Italian anti-terrorist police arrested several people in in nationwide raids in relation to a potential terror attack on the Group of Eight meeting.
The Division of General Investigations and Special Operations (DIGOS) and police from Rome, the Sardinian city of Sassari and northern cities of Milan and Genoa were involved in the police operation. Six people were reportedly arrested in the police raids which were the result of a two-year investigation.
Among those arrested was Luigi Fallico, a former member of the terrorist group the Red Brigades, a group responsible for bank robberies and political assassinations in the 1970s and 1980s.
Those arrested by police are alleged to have been involved in a plot to target the G8 meeting which was to have been held on the island of Maddalena off the coast of Sardinia. It is now due to be held in L'Aquila, site of the devastating April earthquake in the region of Abruzzo, outside Rome in July.
G8 leaders - representing Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - are due to meet in L'Aquila from 8 to 10 July.