•     Disturbing pictures show Romanian and Bulgarian gangs operating in Paris
•     Published in Paris Match magazine, which devoted 8 pages to them
•     They show aggressive gangs causing chaos and misery in French capital

Stalking their prey around some of the most famous tourist attractions in the world, they will stop at nothing to intimidate and steal.

These disturbing pictures showing gangs from Romania and Bulgaria operating in Paris were published in the prestigious Paris Match magazine, which devoted eight pages to them under the headline The Flagrant Crimes Of Pickpockets.

Brazenly targeting their victims in broad daylight at cashpoints, on crowded pavements and in parks and Metro stations, the increasingly aggressive gangs are causing chaos and misery in the French capital.

Duped: A Roma woman asks this man to sign a petition while an accomplice picks his pocket (circled)

Running from the law: Members of a Roma gang escape the police through the streets

Wrong side of the tracks: Roma children run amok on the train lines of the Metro

Police patrols have had to be dramatically increased around iconic monuments such as the Eiffel Tower and The Louvre museum, where earlier this year staff walked out because of the lack of protection against organised Roma groups stealing on an industrial scale from workers and tourists.

Countless thefts are being carried out every day by members of the gangs, many of whom are barely teenagers.

And, as Britain prepares to allow thousands of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria to seek work in the UK as a result of changes to EU immigration rules on January  1 next year, there is every chance of similar Roma gangs coming to the United Kingdom.

President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government came to power a year ago promising to rehouse the Roma and integrate them into society.

But, having criticised the Centre-Right government of predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy for treating immigrants too harshly, Hollande is now facing up to political reality.

Interior minister Manuel Valls has ordered police to dismantle the Roma gipsies’ camps and shanty towns without rehousing them, and he has expelled more Roma from France than Sarkozy did.

Last year, nearly 13,000 Romanians and Bulgarians were deported from France, an increase of 18.4 per cent on the previous year. And many plan to take advantage of the relaxation in EU rule changes by moving to Britain.

This week, a leaked report from Germany’s Interior Ministry — the equivalent of the Home Office — revealed that the country has also suffered a flood of Romanian immigrants because it has already relaxed its immigration rules.

The document describes overcrowded slum conditions, threats to public health, a dramatic increase in crime and disruption on the streets as a result of the influx of immigrants from the two countries.

In the past year alone, 176,000 Romanians and Bulgarians have entered Germany, and local government organisations warn the authorities are struggling to cope.

The German newspaper that acquired the leaked report says the document explicitly warns of the ‘consequences for the social peace’.

The Interior Ministry report refers to  ‘extreme occupancy of dilapidated, uninhabitable properties with illegal dormitories’, adding that up to 20 people are sleeping to a room. It mentions ‘dirty patios, overfilled rubbish bins’ and ‘noisy crowds into the small hours’.

The report also warns that schools are under pressure because of the number of non-German speaking pupils, and says that crime — particularly prostitution — is on the increase in areas where the newcomers have settled.

In Paris, a favourite trick of the child gangs is to approach tourists with a fake ‘petition’ to sign while they are withdrawing money from cash machines.

Distracted by the approach, victims do not see the thieves noting their pin number and then pick-pocketing cash cards to withdraw money for themselves.

‘Do you speak English?’ is another opening gambit used on tourists, as the gang members help themselves to money and possessions, often without their victims even noticing. Otherwise, they just steal cash and valuables direct while people are sitting in parks or on the Metro.

Some will have been among the 1,769 minors detained by French police for committing similar crimes in 2012, but even if caught they are released within a few hours.

Having his collar felt: But this child gang member will be back on the streets within hours

Stop and search: A group of young Roma are lined up and frisked by French police

‘There’s very little we can do with them,’ admitted a Paris police source. ‘As children, they effectively have absolute immunity from prosecution. Much of the money they make ends up with the adult gangmasters who run them. They are much harder to catch because they hide away in the shadows.’

The Louvre alone now has 20 permanent uniformed officers patrolling its galleries, with five of them placed at the entrance.

Similar patrols have been placed around sacred monuments including Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sacre-Coeur, as well as the Eiffel Tower, the Pompidou Centre, and the Palace of Versailles, west of Paris.

Plain-clothes officers are mingling with the thousands of people who visit Paris every day, and the number of surveillance cameras has also been increased.

Two years ago, France’s then Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the vast majority of street robberies in Paris were being carried out by the children of Roma immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria.

Paris is the most popular tourist destination in the world, and the British are the biggest visitor group — meaning thousands of people from the UK are becoming victims of the gangs.

And now, with the imminent relaxation of the immigration rules in this country, the gangmasters who run these teenage criminals are setting their sights on Britain.

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