ROMA families are being moved from their homes in Rome after violent protests by neo-fascist groups threatened their safety.
Far-right protesters from the neo-fascist party Forza Nuova screamed insults and threw objects at a van that removed several people in the Italian capital late on Wednesday.
Some did a raised-arm fascist gesture known as the "Roman salute" and sang the Italian national anthem.
READ MORE: Inside the squalor of Italy's Roma camps
Some neighbours in the Torre Maura, in close to Rome's motorway ringroad in the city;s southeast, turned out and applauded the Roma families' departure.
Mayor Virginia Raggi described a "very heavy climate of hatred" during a Tuesday evening protest allegedly incited by two far-right groups, Casa Pound and Forza Nuova.
She said: "We will not give in to racial hatred and to those who foment it."
Ms Raggi said the families, including 33 children, were being placed elsewhere in the meantime.
The attacks on Roma in Italy have come amid social media claims - essentially a race libel, say experts - that "gypsies", or 'zingari' in Italian, steal children.
There have been concerns that similar narratives in neighboorhoods in the UK, including Glasgow's Govanhill, where there is high Roma migration.
Community activists have warned Govanhill faces a similar far-right threat. Earlier this year Raza Sadiq told The Herald that the area was a "ready-made meal" for anti-immigration extremists.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here