Newsletters
Thousands took to the streets Saturday and Sunday after a call to protest over the cost of living. Demonstrations turned violent in Milan, Turin and Bologna, leading to detentions.
Police in Milan have arrested more than 200 people since Saturday, the Italian agency Ansa said.
Rioters in Milan and Bologna shattered shop windows, targeted some stores for looting and set trash bins ablaze. Damage is estimated at €1 million ($1.1 million) in total, with at least 500,000 in each city.
The clashes left at least 161 people injured, including 141 security personnel and 20 demonstrators.
Clashes in Milan began Saturday on the sidelines of a sanctioned cost-of-living demonstration. Similar unrest hit the northern cities of Bologna and Turin following other protests.
Italy’s cost of living and anti-government protests left a heavy toll, with 28 detentions, at least 161 injuries and about 1 million euros in damage across two cities, reports said.
Tensions occasionally rose between protesters and security forces on Via Torino, with chases breaking out in places and some demonstrators throwing stones and stun grenades.
Masked protesters smashed shop windows along the street, used restaurant tables as barricades and looted some stores, media reported.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for a security meeting Monday to address the violence, which resembled some scenes of chaos and looting in Paris.
The Italian PM called the vandals on Saturday "thugs who exploit demonstrations to spread chaos, attack those who guarantee security, and hold entire cities hostage."
"To demonstrate is a right. To lay our cities to waste is not," she wrote on X.
On Sunday, police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse groups in the Milan square, and video images showed young people, many wearing masks, throwing objects at police cars.
A supermarket on a shopping street leading off the Duomo plaza was ransacked, garbage cans overturned and scooters and bicycles vandalized.
The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, said that he had witnessed "smashed shop windows, looted stores, and frightened citizens."
"What happened here is what we are seeing in many cities around the world," he told Ansa.
"I’m very worried because it’s a new phenomenon, which also originates from an international scenario and therefore feeds itself."
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
2 min read
1 min read
