Two hundred injured at rally against Italian high-speed rail link
Italy: Around two hundred people, mainly police officers, were
injured as officers clashed with masked protesters at a rally against a
high-speed rail link in northern Italy Sunday, police said.
Clashes between protesters and police left at least 188 officers and
about a dozen demonstrators hurt, said officials, after a small group
stormed a tunnel which was part of the work site at Chiomonte, west of
Turin.
Scuffles between protesters and a heavy police presence continued
throughout the day, with a steady exchange of tear gas, stones and
molotov cocktails.
Police arrested at least five people and Italy’s President Giorgio
Napolitano condemned the violence.
Police blamed the trouble on hundreds of masked leftist “black block”
extremists from Italy and neighbouring countries.
Protest organisers said tens of thousands of demonstrators had
gathered peacefully from surrounding regions to stop the construction of
the planned tunnel in the Susa valley.
But a small band broke away from the main group of protestors to
enter the gated work site guarded by hundreds of police, who put the
number of demonstrators at about 6,000.
The project, agreed by Italy and France in 2001, would slice three
hours off the current seven-hour train journey between Paris and Milan.
But the development has provoked fierce opposition, not least among 23
local mayors.
In a statement, President Napolitano condemned what he said was the
work of groups “trained in illegal violence.” He was joined by Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi and figures across the political spectrum.
Police were out in force on Sunday as authorities had expected more
trouble from radical groups within the protest movement after similar
clashes last week.
Twenty-five policemen and four protestors were slightly injured on
June 27 when a demonstration at the same spot turned violent and police
responded with tear gas.
Chiomonte, Monday, AFP |