Visitors asked to join hunt for Venice vandal

[Hornblower]

Visitors asked to join hunt for Venice vandal

July*2, 2004

 

Visitors to Venice were asked to join police yesterday in the search for an 'anti-Christian' vandal who has systematically mutilated holy statues over the past week.

 

Venice's mayor, Paolo Costa, said the vandalism, first considered to be random, now appeared to form a planned series of attacks on holy symbols.

 

"I’m raising the alarm," Costa said. "The attacks are becoming more widespread and more frequent.”

 

The attacks began last Sunday night when tourists in St Mark's Square tackled a man in his 30s who took a hammer to the top of carved marble columns on the Doge's Palace.

 

The man escaped, leaving a 15th-century carving of Moses badly damaged.

 

Police said the same attacker was thought to be responsible for damage to statues of St Mark and St Francis at the Church of the Redeemer on the island of Giudecca.

 

A police spokesman said so far the attacker had hacked off only arms or hands, suggesting some kind of twisted symbolism.

 

"We appear to be dealing with a psychopath obsessed with the hands on Christian figures."

 

Travel Week

 

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Cheers

[LEtue]

How sad...I sure hope they find the person or persons soon :(