Local authorities of Swiss border town Chiasso, called Thursday on inhabitants to help police sniff out spies on Swiss territory, two days after Italian police raided several Swiss banks. 'The municipality will carry out checks following several signs related to non- authorised investigations carried out on Chiasso territory,' said a statement issued by the mayor's office. 'The population is invited to collaborate' with cantonal police and customs officers who will carry out the checks, added the statement from authorities of the Italian-speaking town which borders Italy. While Chiasso authorities did not specify nationalities, the move came after raids on 76 branches of Swiss banks operating in Italy to check if the banks were informing Italian authorities about their clients' banking operations. Following the raid, Gabriele Gendotti, a politician from the Swiss Italian- speaking canton of Ticino, even accused Italian authorities of spying on the movements of their own citizens as part of the crackdown. 'We have indications that Italian tax authorities spy on their citizens on Swiss territory and they carry out checks in the trains,' he said in remarks published by Swiss newspaper Neue Luzerner Zeitung. 