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Actor from mafia film Piranhas stabbed in Naples

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Actor from mafia film Piranhas stabbed in Naples
Actor Artem Tkachuk (L) poses with a younger cast member on the red carpet at the screening for the film "Piranhas" (La Paranza dei Bambini) at the 69th Berlinale film festival in Berlin. Photo: AFP

A teenage actor who appeared in the award-winning film "Piranhas", about child criminals in Naples, has been stabbed in the Italian organised crime stronghold.

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Ukranian 18-year old Artem Tkachuk played one of the gun-wielding, drug-peddling teens in the film, based on a novel by renowned investigative journalist and mafia expert Roberto Saviano.

Tkachuk was attacked by a so-called "baby gang" in the early hours after a night out last week with a friend, local media reported on Monday.

The actor was stabbed twice while his friend was beaten. Neither suffered life-threatening injuries.

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Police believe the youngster may have been set upon because of his role in the film, which won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the 69th Berlin film festival in February and is coming to European cinemas this summer.

Italy's right-wing League party is backing a bill which would lower the age of criminal responsibility in the country from 14 to 12, which the party says would tackle the phenomenon of young people joining gangs at an ever-lower age,

According to the National Observatory on Childhood and Adolescence, 6.5 percent of youngsters in Naples -- home to the feared Camorra crime group – belong to gangs.

Anti-mafia author Saviano has lived under armed guard since publishing his international bestseller "Gomorrah" in 2006.

Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano. Photo: Christophe Simon/AFP

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