Thousands of dead doves rain down in Italy

Tests are being carried out on the bodies of turtle doves after hundreds rained down from the skies on an Italian town in the latest of a global phenomenon.

For the past five days wildlife experts and officers from the forestry commission have picked up more than 1,000 turtle doves as well as other birds including pigeons near the town of Faenza in northern Italy.

Yesterday alone 300 dead birds were recovered, all having a blue tinge to their beaks, which scientists say indicates poisoning or lack of oxygen.

The incident comes after similar cases in the US and Sweden.

The turtle dove case is the largest incident to have hit Europe so far - in Sweden 50 jackdaws were found dead - and Italian officials said they expected results from tests on Monday. The US case saw thousands of blackbirds drop from the sky in the state of Arkansas.

Massimo Bolognesi, of the local World Wildlife Federation, said: "We first started getting reports on Sunday and since then they have been coming in every day. We have collected more than 1,000 turtle doves corpses but there is also the odd pigeon. All have this blue tint to their beak.

"Tests are being carried out on the bodies by the local forestry commission and we should get the results next week but it's the numbers that make this such a notable event and, for the moment, it is a mystery."