Rome mayor pledges zero tolerance for those who steal public assets.

19 employees of Rome's municipal public transport company ATAC have been fired in the last year for "behaviour that conflicts with the company's interests and violates the rules contained in the code of ethics and the penal code", according to the city's mayor Virginia Raggi.

Pledging a zero tolerance approach to those who steal public resources, Raggi said that her administration is committed to "restoring legality and transparency."

The mayor listed the offences for which the ATAC employees were fired: one for "stealing copper parts from a company vehicle, two parking attendants for the theft of sums collected at Park Partigiani, eight employees who provided the company with false medical certificates to justify their absences, five employees who had received criminal sentences for serious crimes, and three employees for drug-related behaviour."

Raggi's announcement came the same day that an ATAC bus burst into flames on Via Cassia in north Rome. There were no injures reported in the bus fire, the latest in a string of similar incidents.