Train Passengers Protest Bug Infestation

[Anonymous]

ROME (AP) - Some people get the itch to travel. But the itch aboard a France-to-Naples overnight train Friday was too much for some passengers, who sparked an angry protest at a stop in Genoa over an infestation of bedbugs hitching a free ride.

Police were summoned to calm the travelers, some of whom refused to re-board, and the offending train car was removed from the train, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

Authorities took the evidence - a handful of insects - to a local public health office to be studied, Italy's state railways said.

The railways press office said that no passengers had complained about insects when the train left Naples on Wednesday night for France, suggesting that the problem might have originated in Nice, where the overnight run to Naples began Thursday night.

French train operators could not immediately be reached for comment Friday night.

Trenitalia, the state railways, also said that the cars on that train were disinfested on Oct. 1

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20051008/D8D3J5O80.html