Eyes in the sky clamp down on graffiti

Small drones will be used by Germany's national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, in an attempt to quell the ever increasing volume of graffiti on the company's property.

The drones will employ infra-red cameras to video the culprits, which footage will be used as court evidence. The offenders will be charged with trespassing and vandalising private property. Currently the cost of cleaning graffiti off railway carriages is setting back the German company by €7.6 million annually.

However with the country's stringent privacy and anti-surveillance laws it is not yet clear how the public will react to the new measure. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn said the drones would used strictly within the company's confines so the privacy of people is secured.

In the next weeks the German company will be testing its first drones at its railway depots. The on-board infra-red cameras are sophisticated enough for people to be identified.