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Rome is banning horse-drawn carriages from its streets in an effort to protect the animals after years of criticism over the trade.

"Carriages will no longer be able to circulate in the streets, in the traffic... only inside the historic parks," Mayor Virginia Raggi said.

But animal rights groups have criticised the decision to allow the trade to continue in parks.

The carriages, known as botticelle, are a popular and lucrative business.

Some tour operators charge more than €100 (£90) per person for a tour of the Italian capital.

"You will never again see tired horses on the streets of the city during the hottest hours of the summer months, because we have expressly forbidden it," Ms Raggi wrote on Facebook.

But Rinaldo Sidoli, a spokesman for the animal and environmental activist group Alleanza Popolare Ecologista, said the rules did not go far enough.

"In 2016, Raggi had guaranteed the abolition of horse-drawn carriages - not just sending them to parks so these horses will continue to be exploited," he wrote on Facebook.

Angelo Sed, head of a carriage drivers' association, said it would be a major blow to a trade already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

"Trade in the parks will never be the same as the sort of business you can do in the city centre," he told the Reuters news agency.