Cardiff's main pedestrian areas will be covered by a network of temporary live facial recognition cameras during Wales' home Six Nations fixtures. South Wales Police says its priority is to keep the public safe and that it will create new "zones of safety" in the city centre.

It will be used in the capital for Wales' home games against Ireland and England. The force says if the trial is successful the technology could be used at other major events and locations in south Wales. Never miss a Cardiff story by signing up to our daily newsletter here.

A statement from South Wales Police said: "We're working hard to further enhance the use of technology to keep the public safe. An officer, not the technology, makes the decision on whether someone who has caused an alert is indeed who police need to speak to. Our use of live facial recognition technology has never resulted in a wrongful arrest. Thanks to the tech and our understanding having evolved there have been no false alerts created for more than five years. We publicise our deployments in advance in part to deter those setting out to commit crime from doing so.

"Facial recognition was previously used on an intelligence-led deployment at a Cardiff gig after similar events elsewhere in the UK resulted in 200-plus phones being stolen from concert-goers. Thanks to this proactive deployment one suspect was identified and arrested for going equipped to steal. Notably there were no reported mobile phone thefts at that Cardiff event."

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