MILAN, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Milan police clashed on Sunday with protesters throwing stones and looting shops during demonstrations against poor services and the rising cost of living, a day after similar unrest in several Italian cities.
Police in riot gear fired tear gas and used water cannons after several hundred hooded protesters broke shop windows and set bins on fire in the area near central Piazza Duomo, sources with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters.
More than 60 protesters were taken to the police station for further checks, the sources added.
A total of 28 protesters were arrested after similar clashes erupted on Saturday in northern cities including Milan, Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo and Turin, according to a police report on Sunday.
The clashes had echoes of the violence in neighbouring France, where hundreds of thousands of people angered by rising costs and declining public services took to the streets on Saturday in some of the country’s most violent protests in years.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, facing an election next year, condemned the violence and announced a government meeting on Monday to discuss how to address the situation.
(Reporting by Sara Rossi; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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