Brawl over smoking ban kills restaurant owner

Italy's strong new anti-smoking laws claimed their first victim yesterday when a pizzeria owner in Turin died of a heart attack after a brawl with three inebriated clients who refused to stub out cigarettes.

Italy's strong new anti-smoking laws claimed their first victim yesterday when a pizzeria owner in Turin died of a heart attack after a brawl with three inebriated clients who refused to stub out cigarettes.

Officers had been called to the Su Forru pizza parlour in the city to identify the three unrepentant smokers so they could be fined when Francesco Ghisu, 70, collapsed with chest pains in the kitchen and was taken to hospital by ambulance. Mr Ghisu had sought repeatedly to convince the three men, aged in their 40s, to stop smoking.

Enraged by the trio's rowdy refusal to comply with the anti-smoking law introduced around Italy last month, Mr Ghisu became increasingly agitated and his son Sandro called the police. Mr Ghisu was dead on arrival at hospital.