Nov 26 (Agencies): Women who wear a burqa or niqab in public will be fined up to £6,500 as the veil has been banned in the Swiss region of Ticino.

In the wake of heightened terrorist attacks across Europe, Swiss region of Ticino approved the law on Monday, reports The Independent.

Burqa has been banned in all public places including shops, restaurants, public buildings and behind the wheel of a car.

In a referendum in September 2013, nearly two-thirds of Ticino's voters had supported the ban.

The bill was inspired by a controversial French law introduced in 2011 barring women from wearing a niqab, a head-to-toe body covering, in the street, public gardens, shops and government buildings.

The Ticino government had urged parliament to apply the law to anyone covering their face in public, including masked hooligans or demonstrators, but the parliamentarians opted to single out the attire worn by Muslim women.

The bill makes no exceptions for tourists, and Ticino is planning to display warning signs at airports and border crossings to inform visitors of the ban.

Some 40,000 tourists from the Middle East visited Ticino last year.