3/29/2009

Speed Cameras Under Fire in France, Italy and the UK
Vigilantes set fire to speed cameras in Italy and the UK. French speed camera covered with glue.

Vigilantes damaged a speed camera in the town of Northam in Devon, England last Sunday in an attack that took place around 10:30pm, the North Devon Gazette reported. A pair of gasoline-soaked tires were placed on the automated ticketing machine and set on fire, but a fire crew responding to the scene was able to extinguish the blaze before the device's internal mechanism suffered damage.

A speed camera was similarly set on fire in the town of Mili in Messina, Italy on Monday. Police officials told Agenzia Stampa Quotidiana Nazionale that although they did not know who was responsible, they intended to install a camera to watch the speed camera.

On Tuesday at around 2:40am a speed camera was set on fire on Briercliffe Road in the Lancashire, England market town of Burnley. Vigilantes made sure to smash the camera lens before starting the blaze that did at least £35,000 (US $50,000) in damage. According to the Burnley Express, police are looking for a man of average height wearing a black wooly hat.

Zoom24 reported that vigilantes attacked a speed camera in the Haute-Loire region of south-central France by using expanding foam to glue paper on top of the device.