Barack Obama’s neighbourhood in Chicago has been turned into a virtual fortress as the Secret Service moves to protect the President-elect.

Assassination fears mean that Mr Obama, who was codenamed “Renegade” by his Secret Service detail on the campaign trail, will become perhaps the most heavily guarded president in history. Streets around his mock-Georgian mansion in the usually easy-going enclave by the University of Chicago have been closed. The main thoroughfare has been shut down because it passes his garden.

Visitors to the synagogue that faces his house must put their names on a list 24 hours before they attend so that their identities can be checked.

“I live one block away. I get ‘carded’ to go on my block,” said Adrienne Stone, 33, a US Air Force veteran. “I have become accustomed to the Secret Service being everywhere. I don’t get a lot of sleep. There are helicopters overhead. But he deserves this. We have lost too many leaders before their time,” she said.

Mr Obama is an undeniable target in a country with more than 200 million registered firearms which has seen the assassination of four presidents – Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. Eight others have survived attempts on their lives.

“The protective-security threat and the challenges surrounding the protection for him is extremely difficult. It’s going to take a lot of resources and a tremendous amount of protective and tactical analysis to stay ahead of the bad guys,” said Fred Burton, vice-president of counter-terrorism at Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence analysis firm.

The tightened security was evident as soon as Mr Obama was declared the winner on election night.

After months of shaking hands with strangers, the President-elect delivered his victory speech from behind bulletproof glass. Secret Service agents, after scanning the stage with lasers from nearby Chicago skyscrapers, warned Mr Obama and his wife and daughters not to stray out of the “line-of-fire” protection zone.

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