UK Garage Gangs Carve Up Ayia Napa

Ayia Napa's zero tolerance mayor Barbara Pericleous this dismissed media reports suggesting that four stabbings in just over a week heralded a gang war, telling the Guardian the Cypriot resort is increasingly family friendly.

These incidents (including the multiple stabbing of rising Brit garage star Dizzie Rascal) are disagreements between friends on a very small scale," she told the Guardian.

"They have nothing to do with any gangs."

Ms Pericleous rose to prominence last season when she introduced bylaws banning dancing and drinking in the street and threatening to outlaw UK garage altogether, unless British tourists behaved.

"If these people continue to not respect themselves or this place we'll close the discos," she promised last June (2002).

"We'll close the pubs, refuse to give clubbers apartments to stay in and stop them playing garage music."

Despite Ms Pericleous' apparent calm, the Guardian suggested 'a well chronicled enmity' between Dizzie Rascal's East London based Roll Deep Crew and So Solid Crew was linked to the violence and quoted an unnamed DJ's claim that 'lives are at stake'
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