Investigations have been launched into four people following the riots and sexual assaults that took place at a flash mob party on Lake Garda on June 2nd.

As the public prosecutor responsible for Verona announced on Thursday, the young men with a migration background have to answer for sexual assaults on five girls on the regional train to Milan and for fights and vandalism in the town of Peschiera del Garda.

Matthias Rub

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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On Thursday, the Prefect of Verona convened a meeting of the Public Order and Safety Committee, which was also attended by the mayors of several municipalities on the southern shore of Lake Garda and representatives of the regional railways.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese announced in Parliament in Rome that more police officers would be deployed in the holiday resorts on Lake Garda to prevent future potential violent flash mob parties.

In addition, surveillance cameras are to be installed in the regional trains in which young people from the metropolitan areas around Turin and Milan travel to the lake.

Anti-immigrant right-wing parties have criticized the measures as insufficient and accused Minister Lamorgese, instead of presenting a basic strategy to avoid such events,

On “Republic Day”, 2,000 to 2,500 young people from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa came to Peschiera del Garda.

They had agreed to meet via social media under the motto "L'Africa à Peschiera" (Africa in Peschiera) in order to "conquer" the bathing and excursion destination.

There were fights and attacks on bathers, shop windows were smashed and cars were demolished.

There were several injured.

In the overcrowded regional train to Milan, six women aged 16 and 17 were sexually harassed by several young men.

The abused women were able to leave the train after a good half hour's journey at the Desenzano del Garda train station, where they lodged a complaint with the train station police.

Later, another ten women reported sexual assaults in Peschiera del Garda.

The mayors of the neighboring towns of Peschiera and Desenzano accused the police headquarters of not being adequately prepared for the flash mob parties.

The Lake Garda incidents had fueled the debate about the failed integration of migrants from Africa and the sons of immigrant families from the Maghreb.

After the incidents at Lake Garda, the groups of young people with a migration background known as "Baby Gangs" called for further flash mob parties on social media, for example in Riccione near Rimini.

But the announced parties didn't happen.