They're like dogs': Paris goes to war on vandals tagging the city

In the Place de la République, the magnificent lions at the feet of the statue of Marianne are once again covered in graffiti.

- Kim Willsher

Along the nearby Boulevard St-Martin – one of the grand thoroughfares that bisect Paris – the trunk of every plane tree has been crudely sprayed with a name. The front of majestic apartment buildings, some dating back more than 200 years, are similarly "tagged" with stylised initials.

So are the benches, flowerboxes, front doors, postboxes and the plinth under the bust of the 19th-century playwright Isidore Taylor. In fact, anything that does not move has been tagged.

Now city hall has declared war on the vandals, pledging to track them down, prosecute and seek fines for some of the estimated £5m of damage they cause every year.

The latest campaign is being waged by Ariel Weil, the mayor of the central district on the right bank of the Seine. He is particularly infuriated by the repeated vandalism to Marianne, a listed historic monument. "I've asked police to use cameras and I will take legal action each time and work out the cost to the city in each case," Weil told Le Parisien newspaper.

"Everyone needs to work together: city hall, the police, and the courts. People have to know that damaging a public building is not nothing."