PARIS, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Paris police say they have banned panhandlers from loitering in some of the city's busiest areas over the holiday season.
Authorities said beggars would no longer be allowed at the Louvre and in the capital's Haussman shopping district, thelocal.fr reported Tuesday.
The Champs-Elysees has been off limits to beggars for three months and police say they have issued 300 fines to panhandlers on the city's most prestigious street.
This ban at the Louvre will end in mid-January after the Christmas shopping season in the city center is over but beggars will be banned from the Champs-Elysees until summer 2012, authorities said.
Most of the beggars are Romanian and belong to organized crime networks, police said.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the bans were "useful" and helped fight "Romanian petty crime."
