Inter Milan have cancelled a pre-season England [Images] tour because of safety fears after the London [Images] suicide bombing campaign, the Italian club said on Saturday.

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"The club has decided to cancel the team tour in England so as not to further stretch the already severely occupied security services," Inter said in a statement on its website.

"Football takes a step back because of the increasingly serious events which touch the sensitivity of everyone," Inter added in the statement.

Inter were due to play Portsmouth, Leicester, Norwich and Crystal Palace, all in the last week of July.

The only match which would have taken place in London would have been against Crystal Palace.

Mayor Ken Livingstone hit out at Inter's decision, telling Sky News: "I think that it is a very silly thing to do because it is playing the terrorists' game. They want to change the way we live."

He added: "The terrorists, I am sure, will be celebrating their decision. The idea there might not be an attack back home (in Milan), that they are more safe there than here, is a complete illusion.

"The truth is, as we have seen from the horrifying news from Egypt, nowhere in the world is safe."

Four British-born suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured 700 others in attacks on train and a bus in London on July 7. London was struck again this week when another four bombs appeared to have failed to detonate properly.

On Saturday, at least 83 people were killed and 200 injured when car bombs ripped through the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in the worst attack in Egypt since 1981.

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