Italy steps up pressure on football hooligans

 As investigations continued, eight hooligans were to go on trial in Milan for assaulting police offices after the Serie A game Inter Milan-Lazio was cancelled.

 The death Sunday of Gabriele Sandri, a Lazio fan accidentally shot by a policeman, triggered violence also in Rome, where groups of Roma and Lazio fans teamed up and attacked police headquarters.

 Rome prosecutors said they will charge the hooligans with committing acts of terrorism.

 Two fans were arrested in Milan as they wrote anti-police slogans on a wall. The same slogans have appeared in other cities while 10 fans are in custody in Bergamo and nine in Taranto.

 The players and coach of Atalanta, the Bergamo side who Sunday had to abandon their game with AC Milan, took a step against hooliganism saying in a letter that they "don't want those criminals at the stadium nor at the training sessions."

   Atalanta president Ivan Ruggeri had said earlier that he will close the north curve of Bergamo stadium where hooligans have their stronghold.

 Fans from many Italian cities were expected in Rome Wednesday for the funeral of Sandri, 26, along with football authorities, Rome mayor Walter Veltroni and the whole Lazio team.

 Meanwhile, police are investigating Luigi Spaccarotella, the officier who fired the fatal shot at a motorway rest station near Arezzo. He faces charges of manslaughter as a result of culpable negligence.

 The officer said he did not mean to hit Sandri, who was leaving the rest station in a car after he and other Lazio fans had a fight with some Juventus fans.

 His position, however, could worsen as it appears that he fired from across the motorway with his arms stretched.

DPA