Italy: Tourists evacuated as Colosseum hit by bomb scare

Rome, 8 August (AKI) - A fake bomb caused police to evacuate hundreds of tourists on Sunday from the Colosseum, Rome's most famous monument.

The alarm was raised by a tourist who spotted the wires emerging from a metal can and thought they were part of a detonating device. Police evacuated the first-century amphitheatre after receiving an anonymous threat by phone.

Authorities said as a precaution police destroyed the can, which contained the paint diluent turpentine and a nine volt battery connected to two electrical wires. Police said the device was harmless and could not explode or burst into flames.

The incident caused Rome's mayor, Gianni Alemanno to return to Rome from a mountain break in the central Abruzzi region. He described the fake bomb as a "a joke, in exceedingly bad taste, or the work of a madman".

The package was placed in an area where there is no public access, an arcade of the world-famous monument, in a manner that could give the impression that it was a bomb.

The Colosseum, the largest amphitheatre built by the ancient Romans, is one of Italy's most famous sites and is visited by many thousands of tourists each year.

The monument features in the popular Ridley Scott movie Gladiator, starring Russel Crowe.