The Italian government has ordered security to be ramped up in cities during the Christmas period following the deadly truck attack at a popular Berlin market late on Monday.
The government directive was issued on Tuesday after a meeting in Rome of the national anti-terrorism strategic analysis committee chaired by interior minister Marco Minniti.
A total of 800 soldiers will be redeployed around the northern city of Milan to help prevent truck attacks on Christmas crowds and security forces will be boosted at shopping centres, the government's top representative in Milan Alessandro Marangoni said Tuesday.
Measures to thwart truck attacks include barriers that will be positioned at Milan's main tourist attractions, along shopping streets and at Christmas markets.
Security will also be boosted at crowded events on New Year's Eve, Marangoni said.
Twelve people were killed and nearly 50 injured in Monday's attack on Berlin's Breitscheidplatzmarket, which came five months after a lorry ploughed through a Bastille Day crowd on 14 July in Nice, killing 86 people and injuring 434.
The Islamic State jihadist group and the Al-Qaeda terror network have urged their followers to use trucks to attack crowds and British police said on Tuesday they were preparing for possible high-speed truck attacks in London over Christmas.
Following a wave of jihadist attacks in France and Germany since 2015, Italy is on 'level two' terror alert, the highest possible in the absence of a direct attack.
