Lithuanian mayor crushes car with tank in parking video

The mayor of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius wants people to know he doesn't like people parking in his city's bike lanes. To demonstrate his feelings on the issue, the city government has released a video of the mayor, Arturas Zuokas, riding proudly on top of a tank as it crushes an illegally parked Mercedes.

The video was a stunt — the city bought the car — but the mayor's spokesperson Irma Juskenaite told The Guardian that Zuokas wanted to send a message.

"Mayor Zuokas wanted his message to be loud and clear that the city will not tolerate brazen and disrespectful behaviour by drivers who disobey parking rules," Juskenaite said.

In voiceover during the video, Zuokas denounces drivers of expensive cars who park where they want.

"In the past few days, expensive cars have been illegally parked in almost this exact same place — a Rolls Royce and a Ferrari. What should the city do about drivers who think that they are above the law?" Zuokas says. "It seems that a tank is the best solution."

The end of the video features shots of Zuokas sweeping up some of the mess made by the tank, and then biking away from the scene.

Asked by New York Times reporters on Twitter whether he could imagine New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg performing such a stunt, New York Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson replied: "firing up the tank now."