An Italian bishop has threatened legal action against Pokemon Go, saying the 'diabolical' game has turned its army of smartphone-wielding players into 'walking dead', reports said on Thursday.

Antonio Stagliano, the bishop of the southern town of Noto in Sicily, was quoted by several newspapers as saying he was ready to go to court to get the wildly popular app banned.

The augmented-reality game, which allows players to catch virtual monsters using GPS mapping on their phones, has become a global craze since its launch on July 6 but has also prompted a wave of criticism and controversy.

An Italian bishop has threatened legal action against Pokemon Go, saying the 'diabolical' game has turned its army of smartphone-wielding players into 'walking dead'

Stagliano had already lashed out at the game in recent days, declaring it 'a totalitarian system close to Nazism' and saying it had 'alienated thousands and thousands of young people' by getting them hooked on monster-hunting.

The bishop is well known in the Italian press, particularly for his mid-mass renditions of rock hits by popular singers Noemi and Marco Mengoni.

His outburst follows a French mayor denouncing the 'anarchical settlement' of 'Pokemon Go' characters on the 'territory' of his eastern village and ordering the game's creator to remove the virtual creatures.

The augmented-reality game, which allows players to catch virtual monsters using GPS mapping on their phones, has become a global craze since its launch on July 6

Bressolles Mayor Fabrice Beauvois said on Tuesday that he has mailed a decree to California-based Niantic Inc. and The Pokemon Company to make sure they stop setting up Pokemons in the village of about 800 inhabitants northeast of Lyon.

In his decree, the mayor says the search for Pokemons puts pedestrians and drivers at risk because players get inattentive while watching their smartphones and that it may also result in groups of people forming at night.

Beauvois insisted in a phone interview with The Associated Press that his order, issued last week, is only targeting the two companies, not the players. He said that Bressolles is the first French municipality to issue such a decree.

The mayor lamented the settlement of Pokemon characters on the 'territory' of his village without Niantic asking for prior authorization.

'When a cafe or a restaurant owner wants to open a business in any French town, they have an obligation to request prior authorization to the mayor. The rule applies to all people wishing to set up an activity or occupy a space on a public property. So it applies to Niantic as well, even though their settlement is virtual,' Beauvois said.

Beauvois maintains the 'Pokemon Go' phenomenon is spreading in a 'contagious' way, that the game may lead to a 'dangerous addiction' among young people and that it is his responsibility to ensure public tranquility and order.

'They (Niantic developers) use the entire planet as a playground,' he said.



