Global News Podcast: Moscow says Wagner boss Prigozhin confirmed dead in plane crash

Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis

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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Gareth Barlow and in the early hours of Monday the 28th of August, these are our main stories.

Russian officials say genetic tests have confirmed that the Wagner Mercery boss,

Yevgeny Progosian, was killed in a plane crash earlier this week. There are indications that

Ukrainian forces have broken through key Russian defensive positions in the south of the country.

And the main opposition leader in Zimbabwe has accused Emerson and Magagwa of carrying out a coup

after official results show the President won Wednesday's election.

Also in the podcast. It was a small protest because Halstatt is a small place and these were

locals but for a long time now they have felt that there is simply too much tourism in Halstatt.

Residents of an alpine town in Austria known as one of the most Instagram places in the world

are fighting back against mass tourism.

It's been confirmed that Yevgeny Progosian, the chief of the Wagner Mercery group,

died when his plane crashed on Wednesday. On Sunday Russian investigators said they'd

identified all the victims. The plane, a private jet, crashed northwest of Moscow on the 23rd of

August, killing all those on board. It's still not known why the plane came down. Our Russia

editor Steve Rosenberg reports. The statement was brief. Just three sentences. It didn't even mention

the Wagner chief by name. But the implication was clear. Here were the Russian authorities

apparently confirming the death of Yevgeny Progosian. A spokesperson for Russia's investigative

committee announced that genetic testing of bodies recovered from the crash site had been

completed and that the identities of all 10 victims matched the names on the flight manifest.

That list of passengers and crew included Mr Progosian and his right-hand man Wagner commander

Dmitry Utkin. The private jet on which they'd been traveling had crashed into a field 60 miles

north of Moscow on Wednesday. The cause of the crash is still unclear. There's been much

speculation about a bomb, a missile, some kind of sabotage. The Kremlin has denied having anything

to do with it. But that denial has not removed the suspicion that Mr Progosian was targeted

by the Russian authorities as an act of revenge for the mutiny he'd organized in June. The insurrection

by Wagner fighters, an unprecedented challenge to the authority of President Putin.

Yevgeny Progosian led a life packed with incident and controversy with more, here's Danny Abad.

Yevgeny Progosian's rise to prominence reads like a novel. In Soviet times, a young Progosian

served the lengthy jail term for assault and robbery. On his release, he sold hot dogs before

setting up restaurants and making contacts with another St. Petersburg native, Vladimir Putin.

He built a fortune on lucrative state catering contracts, gaining the nickname Putin's chef.

But it was as the head of the Wagner paramilitary group he'll be remembered. He co-founded it in

2014 during Russia's partly proxy military intervention in eastern Ukraine. The group

expanded operations to Syria and Africa, picking up a reputation for propping up authoritarian regimes

and carrying out grave human rights abuses. Since last year, Wagner's fought in some of

the bloodiest battles in Ukraine, including Bukhmut. Disillusioned, Progosian bitterly

denounced Russia's military establishment. The dispute spiralled into a full-scale mutiny.

President Putin called it treasonous. Two months on, a man who had no qualms embracing

brutality has met his own violent end. Many suspect it's the Kremlin's revenge.

That was Danny Abahat. Meanwhile, reports from southern Ukraine suggest the country's armed

forces have broken through some of Russia's key defensive positions. Our diplomatic correspondent

Paul Adams is monitoring developments from Kyiv. Ukraine's offensive in the south has been slow

going, but after three months of tough fighting southeast of Zaporizhia, some Ukrainian units

do finally appear to have broken through Russia's formidable first line of defence.

As usual, the government here in Kyiv is saying very little about how its forces are getting on,

but this could mark a significant moment. Russia's defences have so far been well organised,

but Moscow's forces have been under enormous pressure for months now. It's not known how

strong their remaining defensive lines are or how they'll respond to the latest developments.

Let's head north now to the Baltics, and the leader once called Europe's new iron lady.

But the Prime Minister of Estonia is currently having her tough credentials sorely tested.

Kaya Kalis has taken a particularly tough line when it comes to Russia just over the border.

She's astride at backer of Ukraine and a staunch critic of Moscow's invasion.

Indeed, she told Estonian businesses they ought to withdraw from Russia,

and that's now what's got her into trouble. I asked our Europe regional editor,

Paul Moss, why exactly Kaya Kalis is in the news.

Because it turns out that her husband had 25% shares in a company involved in logistics,

and that company was sending supplies to an aerosol company inside Russia. Now,

we're not talking huge money, but the company said to have earned the equivalent of nearly

one and a half million dollars since Russia invaded, and that is seriously embarrassing.

Last year, you know, Kaya Kalis said that the state railway company in Estonia shouldn't

carry nickel to Russia. Now, nickel's not subject to sanctions. Her point was that it was wrong to

do anything that helped keep Russia's economy going, and that obviously leaves her open to

accusations of serious hypocrisy. She says she didn't know about these investments. She says

he and she and her husband just don't discuss business at home. Now, on the one hand, that's

understandable. I guess if he spent his day disguising, you know, trying to work out which

kind of widget to put the company's money in, it might not really come up around the dinner table.

If your wife is the prime minister of Estonia, she's been criticising anyone doing business with

Russia, and you've got shares in a company that's doing that, you know, what people are saying,

that might just come up somewhere between dessert and sitting down to watch the television for the

evening. This is serious trouble for her. You would think so, to some degree, surely. And on that

basis thing, you mentioned serious trouble. What has the reaction been? It has been very angry.

Political opponents, the circling, they're talking about having a motion of no confidence

tabled in the Estonian Parliament this week. The media are hostile. Lots of newspapers calling for

her to go. And perhaps worse, there are surveys which suggest the majority of Estonians want

her to resign. You've got to understand this is a very small country right next to Russia.

This huge neighbour, in fact, Estonia was once absorbed into Russia as part of the Soviet Union.

Anything to do with Russia is very, very sensitive. Basically, if you're an Estonian politician,

you would probably be better off being discovered to have stolen money from an orphanage or perhaps

having an affair with the finance minister's husband. Any of that will be better than something

which involves Russian money. The thoughts there of Paul Moss. Well, the BBC's Tim Frank spoke to

a leading critic of the Estonian Prime Minister. He's Ermas Reinsalou, a former Minister of Foreign

Affairs and Chairman of the Centre Right opposition. This is a question of moral, of personal

integrity of Prime Minister. And in that context, media opposition have called and I fully believe

that Prime Minister has out of moral capacity in this domain to continue this policy of advocating

harsh sanctions and to continue in her office. But I wonder if one of the key parts of what

you've just said is the fact that it's the Prime Minister's husband. It's not the Prime

Minister herself. It's not her company. I mean, why should she be responsible for what her husband

gets up to? And also, from what I understand, he and his company that he's been involved in

this logistics operation, they haven't broken any laws. Yes, but this is the key issue. Estonian

demand is that there is also a moral approach to companies, to countries, that we should ban

all the trade towards Russia. And Prime Minister herself has put it in public messages very clear

and steadfast. When it became public, Prime Minister's comment on this particular business

of her husband, unfortunately, has been a supportive one. During all these 500 days of war,

there has been a systematic logistics to transport the raw materials into Russia

to deliver this company. And unfortunately, this company still goes on and the cargo deliveries

continue. Ermas Reinsalou, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs in Estonia. Well, on Friday,

the husband of the Estonian Prime Minister apologized for the situation that's arisen and

the, quote, harm caused to my wife. Other Halleck said he would immediately sell his shares in the

Stark Logistics Company and withdraw from it. Let's take you to Zimbabwe now. And Emerson

Umangagwa is beginning another five-year term as the country's president, which international

observers and the opposition say was secured by intimidating voters and widespread electoral

fraud. President Umangagwa won with almost 56% of the vote, a result the opposition leader,

Nelson Chameza, described as blatant and gigantic fraud. Unsurprisingly, the ruling Zhanu PF party

rejected the criticism, saying the vote was fair and peaceful. Zambia Zambia is Zimbabwe's

minister of justice. In the history of this country, this is one election that was extremely

peaceful and our processes, the way they were done, they were very fair. Nobody was intimidated.

Everyone was afforded the same opportunities to do whatever they wanted to do. And I'm not very

sure which areas the allegations are coming from to say that they were not fair. Well, even before

the results were announced, several independent foreign observer missions criticized the fairness

and credibility of the elections. Observer missions from the EU, Commonwealth and 16 nation

Southern African Development Community reported a number of concerns with the vote,

including the banning of opposition rallies. Among the critics is the Zimbabwe journalist

and documentary maker, Hopwo Chinano. In urban areas, which are mainly opposition strongholds,

they didn't have election material that is ballot papers for over 12 hours. And this was a form of

rigging called voter suppression. Prior to the election day itself, the opposition was not allowed

to hold all its rallies. They have to get permission from the police. So everything was

taken against the opposition. While the ruling Zhanu PF party was also declared the winner in

the parliamentary race, but failed to secure a two thirds majority to allow the party to institute

constitutional amendments, which observers had feared could be used to extend presidential term

limits. So what now then for the main opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change, what are

their options? A question for our correspondent in Harare, Shinga Nyaka. Nelson Chamisa, the

opposition leader, held a press conference. He kept the cards very close to his chest,

but really reasserted the position that he believes that he won this presidential election.

Officially, he pulled 44% of the votes and Emerson Menanguag of 52.6. But he really wasn't clear

about what he was going to do next. I specifically asked him whether he was going to take the matter

to court. And he didn't respond. That's because in the past, when he has taken these matters to

court, he tried to get the 2018 results overturned in the constitutional court and he failed. So he

really is running out of options. There has been talk about protests, but we really haven't seen that

on the ground, that level of anger that would lead to protests. It strikes me that Zimbabwe needs

a smooth electoral process because the country still faces huge economic challenges. It's shunned by

wide parts of the international community too. It doesn't need these kind of distractions.

And that is the concern that was expressed by Nelson Chamisa is that for so many decades,

for almost as many decades as I've worked as a journalist in this country, every election

has been disputed. It's been violent. And there's a link that people make here between

the Zimbabwe's politics and the state of its economy. It has been shunned by western countries.

Investors have fled. They also under the former president, Robert Mugabe, where the policies

were so inconsistent and they would change. Investors really didn't want to come back.

And so really, this election was to have been the first sign of confidence to investors that

Zimbabwe is really ready to fix its politics to adhere to human rights as well as to the rule

of law. But that hasn't happened. The Commonwealth, for example, Zimbabwe had applied to be

admitted to the Commonwealth. And one of the conditions was a free and fair election.

So given the damning assessment that the Commonwealth gave of these elections,

it's not clear whether that will happen. And so it seems that Zimbabwe is just stuck in this

endless crisis of politics and bad politics and bad economics.

The voice there is Shinganyaka. Since it was launched in 2016, use of the video-sharing platform

TikTok has grown exponentially. For a billion users every month, those are the company's figures.

It's a major source of both entertainment and information. At this year's Edinburgh Fringe

Festival in Scotland, young TikTok stars have been trying to translate their online fame

into performing comedy live on stage. Vincent Dowd reports.

Here in Edinburgh, there are well over 3,000 shows and comedy dominates, such as Knock Knock,

whose young cast will mean nothing to you unless you're an online devotee of TikTok,

in which case they are massive. Guys, I'm at a wedding, right? And I want to get married.

I'm going to propose. Someone stole my men's beef when it fell at my bag on this little walk back

from the court, which is only 200 metres away. Oh, Molly and Zach voted for Mitch and Ella.

Mitch winked at him. We will be learning about World War II, actually, the rest of your school

careers, actually. Comedy burnout can hit on the Edinburgh Fringe, but this audience was thrilled

to see four TikTok favourites in the flesh.

Like his colleagues Stephen McKell, Ayame Ponder and Coco Surrell,

in his mid-20s, Henry Rowley has an impressive online following. His act sends up his own middle

class ladishness. Right, so we're friends, right? We're halfway through and it's sick,

right? Everyone seems to get really competitive about how niche they can be with the shows that

they've seen, right? Meanwhile, I'm there, strolling out of Ladyboys at Bangkok.

Hi, I'm Henry Rowley. Ayame. I am Stephen McKell and I'm from Faith. I am Surrell. My online handle

is Coco Surrell. What would I kind of associate you with? Reaction videos, so reacting to anything

from bottles smashing on stairs to men and women, actually, inclusive. Post stereotypes are the most

famous ones, but also uncomfortable things like creepy teachers. For my Love Island debriefs,

where I just talk about the show Love Island. Comedy sketches, more of an about Scottish

culture and growing up being Scottish. I think I'd lost the dream about becoming someone. I'd

always been an attention seeker. I was an estate agent and I'd posted one video that did really

well and I thought, oh, wow, I can make it out of this dump. Online is so saturated with so much

good content. You can get lucky when something picks up a wave and takes off and when you get that,

you get eyes on your other stuff. Once you get a video that does well, how are you going to do

after that? This is a world which is being invented as we speak. What do you hope to move onto?

Acting, presenting, hosting, comedy, writing. I'm Edward Linderman. I head up entertainment

and news operations at TikTok here in the UK. TikTok is really synonymous with comedy content.

The very early stages of the platform, people would come to TikTok because

they made them laugh and I think when TikTok became really well known was during the pandemic,

we all really needed some of that light relief and some of that comedy content.

Greta Tittleman from Los Angeles has a high energy show almost next door to the TikTok stars,

but she's slightly older and she's ambivalent about TikTok's emerging power to shape bite-sized

comedy content. I think TikTok is a really, really, really amazing tool and I oscillate between

feeling like a big fool for not investing more of my time in it, but then I also feel an immense

freedom in the fact that, well, I don't have, you know, millions of followers that I constantly

need to be feeding their hunger for more content. I can honestly be intimidated by some

content creators on TikTok just in the sheer volume that they can put something out and the

fearlessness that they seem to have. Some TikTok comedy success stories have already been catching

the eye of TV and radio, even of film companies. TikTok's critics said the talent it discovered

wouldn't last. Ed Linderman of TikTok does not agree. The creators we see succeeding and probably

the two key attributes that they have is one, being creative and that sounds very obvious,

but it's really about coming up with new and different ideas around whether it's characters

or videos themselves. And then the second one actually is consistency. It's a big commitment,

it's a full-time job, so they're constantly thinking about the next piece of content or video

that they're creating, and that's because they want to really engage the communities that follow

them and provide them with things that make them laugh. Ed Linderman of TikTok ending that report

by Vincent Dowd. Still to come. We brought this bag with us. Look at the holes. Look at the holes.

It wasn't down for very long. Here are why officials in Rome are having to clean up the coliseum.

A podcast makes a short break. Hate speech, on the other hand, doesn't stop that easily.

Who even has the guts to talk? Go to the kitchen before I find out where you live and you...

I personally say thank you. Listen to the haters. You're doing a really good job. And we all stand behind you.

We all decide whether we'll leave the network to hate.

Be a part of the Telekom Initiative against Hate in the Network and set a sign. Telekom.

From their battles on the world stage, I gave everything for that race and I was able to come away

with something that like I've dreamed about since I was a kid. To their battles behind closed doors.

I had to reach some terrible bottoms in my addiction and suffer some really terrible consequences and

suffer a lot of loss due to my drinking to get to where I am today.

On the podium is the podcast where Olympians and Paralympians share their stories. On the

podium from the BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Welcome back to the Global News Podcast. Let's take you to Argentina where officials say there's

been a wave of looting over the past week with the tanks on shops and supermarkets in several

provinces. A government spokesperson accused the libertarian opposition leader Javier Millay

of stoking the unrest. He's currently the frontrunner as October's election draws closer.

He's denied the claims. Argentina is in the middle of a severe economic crisis,

with inflation running into triple figures, putting many basic goods out of the reach of most people.

James Menendez spoke to Ana Lanquez, Latin American correspondent of The Economist magazine,

saying how bad has the looting been? The looting started last Friday and carried on throughout

the week and so far at least 94 people have been detained just in Buenos Aires province and there

were at least 150 separate incidents of looting in the province of Buenos Aires and dozens more

across the country. And it's really in cities all across the country. Does it seem in any way

organized? So that's what the government is saying. They are saying that several politicians from

opposition parties have stoked the unrest and are encouraging looting on WhatsApp.

But so far we have no proof that any political party is behind this. Rather, it just seems that as

fears of uncertainty are mounting and there are fears that there's hyperinflation coming in the

next few months, people are getting really nervous. And so there are rumors on WhatsApp that because

this crisis is coming, you better stock up soon and loot supermarkets. This has already happened

in the past, it happened in 2001 and it happened in 1989 when there were episodes of hyperinflation.

And just give us a bit more detail on how bad the economic crisis has become. What is it like

for most families? It's really terrible. Right now you have inflation running, annual inflation,

running at 115%, which is higher than anywhere else in the world except Venezuela, Zimbabwe

and Lebanon. And what that means is that the local currency, the beso, devalues so quickly that you

cannot save. People do not hold money in local bank accounts. So it's become impossible to save.

There is a growing informal economy and people have resorted to bartering. So for example,

now you have markets where you can trade diapers for clothing or different foodstuffs.

So the fear now is that things are going to get worse before they get better. Because in order

to fix Argentina's economy, the government, whoever comes to power in the October elections,

is going to have to make some very difficult decisions. And that's the context in which the

looting is happening. And Javier Millay, I mean, he's shaken up the race, is he also contributing

to the economic uncertainty? Definitely. So as you mentioned, the candidate who got the most

votes in the primary was Javier Millay. And he's a libertarian outsider who proposes really radical

changes to Argentina's economy, including scrapping the peso and dollarizing the economy and in the

process, getting rid of the central bank. And the outcome of the primaries added a lot of uncertainty

to what is already a very fragile situation. And so the day after the election, the central bank

devalued the local currency because of that increased uncertainty. And that will almost

certainly lead prices to rise even more in the coming weeks. And then in addition, this year,

Argentina was hit by a terrible drought. And the country owes a huge debt to the IMF with

several payments coming due later this year. So you put all those factors together. And there's

a lot of fear right now. And a lankers of the economist. Ethiopia and Egypt say talks have

resumed in Cairo in an effort to end a lengthy diplomatic row about a huge dam on the River Nile.

Egypt and Sudan have long feared that their water supply will be threatened by Ethiopia's decision

to build the $5 billion project. Africa regional editor Will Ross reports.

Government officials from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are in Cairo trying to finally come up

with an agreement on how to share the waters of the River Nile. Construction of the vast dam in

Western Ethiopia began more than a decade ago. It started generating electricity early last year,

and the reservoir is steadily being filled up, much to the anger of Egypt and to a lesser extent

Sudan. Almost all of Egypt's water comes from the River Nile, so it sees the dam as a huge threat.

Ethiopia says the project is essential in order to electrify millions of homes and help eradicate

poverty. That report by Will Ross. Let's take you to France and the wooded rolling hills of Maymac.

These days, the small town is known for ancient houses and network of rivers and views of the

central French countryside. But back in the Second World War, it was the scene of a mass execution

of German prisoners who were forced to dig their own graves and then shot by the French resistance.

Archeologists have been uncovering the site after it was identified by the last surviving witness.

A France correspondent, Hugh Scofield, picks up the story.

This comes about because the 98-year-old, Edmore Révet, has decided at the very end of his life

to reveal this extraordinary secret, which was the killing by the resistance, French resistance,

of 40, 50. The numbers are not entirely clear. German prisoners just after D-Day.

And this was a couple of days, like you say, after D-Day in this kind of wooded area, this

network of rolling hills, the rivers around there. And these Germans were forced to dig their own

graves before they were then shot. The circumstances are very specific. It was after D-Day. It was at

the time of great tension across France as German forces pushed up to Normandy. The days

of usually preceding this had been terrible German exactions in the area. Ninety-nine people hanged

publicly in the town of Toul, where these German prisoners were taken, and then the massacre of

even more people had to order us for a gland. The village was just destroyed. And these Germans

were being held prisoner because there had been a little uprising in the town of Toul,

and which had briefly succeeded. And this group of 40, 50, 60 German prisoners were marched off

into the Maki, into the wooded sparsely populated countryside, not quite mountainous, but very,

very hilly. And the resistance group had no idea what to do with them. They were not trained for

this. They hadn't planned for this. The circumstances had suddenly changed. They radioed through

to their command for instructions and for whatever reason, possibly as a reprisal for what had

happened in Aurore de Ossoglan and Toul. The command order came, shoot them. So the group

ordered the German soldiers to dig there, a big trench there in grave, and then they were shot

in the chest by the French resistance men at a distance of about four or five meters and tumbled

into the grave. So it's one of those appalling stories when here's about from wartime. The oddity

is that this time it's the inverted commas goodies who did it. So the archaeologists have found some

coins, they found some bullets, but notably they haven't found any bodies yet. What are the next

stages in this search? We know roughly where it was. And they thought they'd found the trench,

but they hadn't because this, the bit of ground they dug up didn't reveal the bodies. But in the

vicinity of this, where they hoped to find the bodies, they had sort of probes down. And that

was where they found all these artifacts, 20 or so bullets and bullet casings, coins, all dating

from pre-1944, the bullet casings and bullets of Swiss, German, American and French manufacture,

which would reflect exactly the kind of disparate weaponry that irregular

resistance would have had. So I mean, it's quite clear that this is the place.

Our France correspondent there Hugh Scofield, you're listening to the Global News podcast.

Now to sport and the World Athletics Championships taking place in Hungary

have come to a close. Our sports reporter, Alex Kappstick, is in Budapest.

A World Championships full of excitement ended with yet more drama. Mary Moorer of Kenya clinched

the much-anticipated women's 800 metres, pipping the two favourites, Britain's Keely Hodgkinson

and the defending champion, Athing Moe of the US. Norway's Jacob Inge Brickston made up for missing

out on gold in the 1500 metres, with an edge of the seat victory over 5,000. In the finale,

to nine days of gripping action, Femke Ball, whose fall on the opening day denied the Netherlands

gold in the mixed relay, produced a sensational late surge to drag her team into first place

in the four by 400 metres. On the infield, there was a popular winner in the women's high jump,

Yaroslava Makachik, with Ukraine's first gold in Budapest, while in the men's javelin, the Olympic

champion from India, Niraj Chopra, threw furthest with Pakistan's Arshad Nadim in the silver medal

position. In his closing speech, the head of World Athletics, Sebastian Ko, described the

championships as outstanding. Few would argue that Budapest has delivered.

Alex Kapstik

In Austria, the residents of an alpine town known as one of the most Instagram places in the world

have held a protest against mass tourism. An estimated 10,000 people visit Hallestadt,

a world heritage site every day during the high season. But just 700 people live there.

Some of the locals have taken part in a sit-in to block the mountain tunnel,

which leads to the town. I heard more from the BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna.

It was a small protest because Hallestadt is a small place, and these were locals,

residents, people who lived there. But for a long time now, they have felt that there is simply

too much tourism in Hallestadt, that too many people are coming, particularly too many day

trippers. And today, a group of people from Hallestadt went and blocked the mountain tunnel,

which is the main route into Hallestadt for these day trippers, many of whom are brought in big

travel buses. And they said, really, there has to be a reduction in the number of daily tourists,

and that they want to have buses not arriving in the place from 5pm until 10am the next day.

And to put some figures on this, the village has roughly 700 inhabitants and potentially 10,000

people a day are going during high season. Why has it become so popular?

The first thing that has to be said, it is a very, very beautiful place. It is a world heritage site.

It has got a beautiful little village, which is perched on the shores of this pristine Alpine

lake and the craggy mountains all around about. But it became popular in Asia, and it featured

actually in a South Korean romantic drama back in 2006. And then in 2012, a lot of Chinese

were coming to visit it, and some Chinese actually built a replica of Hallestadt in China.

And then since then, it's just become more and more popular, particularly because

it's got very, very popular on social media and on Instagram.

At the end of the day, tourism has its benefits. It brings jobs, it brings money,

it brings foreign investment as well. But there is obviously the flip side,

the inhabitants say they are inundated with people. Where does this all go? What is the

resolution here, do you think? Nobody in Hallestadt would dispute how important tourism has been

for its economy. This was a tiny little village, which has really done very well after tourism.

But at the moment, they're saying, really, this can't go on. And they make comparisons.

People talk about over-tourism in places like Venice, but they say per capita,

each resident of Hallestadt has way more tourists coming than bigger cities like Venice do, for

example. Certainly, the town wants to see concepts to try and limit the tour buses coming through.

It was interesting. The last time I was in Hallestadt, I was at the Instagram selfie point,

and there were people having their pictures taken or taking their own pictures.

And you could see a homemade sign that had been put up by the side of the lake saying,

quiet, please. That was Bethany Powell. Let's stay with tourism, because one of the world's

biggest attractions has been forced to clean up its act after being overrun in parts by rodents.

Visitors have been posting videos of rats roaming around the Colosseum in Rome,

and their numbers are reported to be on the rise. Steffi Prentiss has this report.

Welcome to Rome, Italian vets.

One of many videos on TikTok posted by visitors to the Colosseum, showing large rats scurrying

across the ground, running over visitors' feet and getting into their bags.

We brought this bag with us, but what we didn't know is that there are rats.

Look at the holes. Look at the holes. It wasn't down for very long,

and I picked the bag up. Rat holes in it.

It's become such an issue that officials launched a special intervention over the weekend,

bringing in extra cleaning staff, laying traps, and clearing out the drains that the rats emerge from.

In a statement, the city government said there are an estimated 7 million rats in central Rome,

or 2.5 for every inhabitant. But it says a surge of visitors this summer,

combined with the heatwave, have created conditions that have drawn the rodents

into the Colosseum and surrounding area, namely lots of leftover food and piles of rubbish.

Built 2,000 years ago, the Colosseum was the biggest amphitheater in the Roman Empire,

and attracts around 6 million visitors every year. Those visitors are now being encouraged

to clean up after themselves as they tore the ancient ruins, and to keep a close eye on their

bags if there are any snacks inside.

The editor is Kara Martin. I'm Gareth Barlow, and until next time, goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.