ROME - NEARLY 18 per cent of the Italian population - 11 million people - trusts self-styled sorcerers and healers, a consumer watchdog said in a report on Monday.

The group Telefono Antiplagio found more than 16,000 cases of people being scammed by sorcerers and healers since 1994. There are 155,000 sorcerers and healers active in Italy.

Every day, 33,000 people see sorcerers or astrologers in Italy, the study found.

The top reason for seeing a sorcerer is to soothe a broken heart (46 per cent), followed by health problems (25 per cent), violence (22 per cent) and trouble at work (seven per cent). -- AFP