Italy stops UK tourist with Pompeii mosaic tiles

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Many of Pompeii's ruins have floor mosaics (file pic)

Italian police have detained a British woman suspected of removing some small Roman tiles from a mosaic at Pompeii.

Italian media say she was spotted cutting tiles - called tesserae - from a floor mosaic in the world-famous site's House of the Anchor. She was with her father and sister at the time.

The damage was estimated at €3,000 (£2,600) by the site's manager.

The 20-year-old had crossed a guard rail around the mosaic. Volcanic ash long buried Pompeii's spectacular art.

Nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, killing many Pompeii residents and entombing what had been a thriving city.

Last year police arrested two French tourists found stealing pieces of marble and earthenware at Pompeii, Italy's Il Giornale daily reports.

And in 2016 an American took a piece of marble off the floor of the House of the Small Fountain, the paper said.

Read more about Pompeii:

• Flying rock crushed Pompeii victim's head

• Erotic fresco unearthed in Pompeii

• Pompeii's destruction date could be wrong