Outcry after tourist carves name on wall at the Colosseum in Rome

The Colosseum attracts visitors from all over the world, but some fail to respect the Unesco heritage site. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP

Italian police are on the hunt for a young tourist who carved his and his girlfriend’s names into a wall of the Colosseum, sparking widespread condemnation.

The English-speaking tourist was filmed by an onlooker using keys to engrave “Ivan+Hayley 23” into the wall of the 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre on Friday afternoon.