Prime Minister Romano Prodi made an emergency visit to Naples on Thursday to plan strategy to confront a rash of murders that has sparked calls for the army to be dispatched to restore order to the southern city.
Just hours before he arrived, a man with a criminal record was stabbed outside a church in the centre only a dozen blocks away from where he was meeting police and politicians to discuss measures to curb the violence. A poor city that is home to the Camorra, the local version of the Mafia, Naples is no stranger to crime.
But a spate of at least seven murders in less than a week - three on Tuesday alone - is unusual even for a city accustomed to petty crime and thievery.
In recent months, violence in the area has drawn in everyone from tourists wandering the city's narrow, ancient streets to locals unconnected to the Camorra.
Prodi, already battling anger over an unpopular budget in Rome, has said he does not favour sending the army to help quell the violence but prefers a broader, long-term approach to address the problem of underdevelopment in all of the south.
Long used to living with the tentacles of organised crime in their midst, residents of Italy's third-largest city speak of a growing sense of frustration and resignation.
"The system is so rotten that nothing is clean any more," said Giuseppe Batelli, a 63 year-old pensioner who was robbed twice when he ran a jewellery shop. "Here, there is fear ... Even in school, kids ask the Camorra for protection." Many believe sending in the army, a tactic that has been used in the past in both Naples and Sicily, will not solve the problem.
The violence has sparked calls for a strong reaction from the government to restore order and drawn the ire of politicians in Italy's wealthier North. "Naples today is a sewer that needs to be cleaned up and rid of all its rats," Roberto Calderoli, a senator for the conservative Northern League said. Many Italian politicians condemned Calderoli's comments, with one accusing him of "fomenting hatred".
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