MILAN, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Italian police detained 271 young people during unrest in Milan on Sunday, authorities said, after a second day of protests over poor public services and rising costs that saw demonstrators clash with officers, loot stores and vandalise property.
Police in riot gear fired tear gas and water cannon as several hundred hooded protesters set bins ablaze and looted stores including sports retailers Decathlon and Arc’teryx and phone store Vodafone in the city centre, according to TV footage.
Of those taken to police stations, 32 were arrested, including 23 minors and 13 foreign nationals, police said on Monday. A further 28 people were reported to judicial authorities.
The unrest followed similar clashes on Saturday in northern cities including Milan, Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo and Turin, where 28 protesters were arrested, according to a police report released on Sunday.
The disturbances echoed unrest in neighbouring France, where hundreds of thousands of people angered by rising living 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, who faces 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 and Cristina CarlevaroEditing by Ros Russell)
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