Milan police clash with protesters on second day of unrest
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Protesters run along a street strewn with debris during a protest over the state of public services and the rising cost of living in Milan, Italy, on Oct 18.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MILAN - Youth and police clashed for a second day on Oct 18 in Milan, where mostly black-clad assailants hurled bottles, ransacked stores, and destroyed property around the central Duomo plaza.
Police in the northern city have arrested more than 200 people since Oct 17, according to Ansa news agency.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for a security meeting on Oct 19 to address the violence, which resembled some scenes of chaos and looting in Paris.
The Milan clashes began on Oct 17 on the sidelines of a sanctioned cost-of-living demonstration. Similar troubles took place in the northern cities of Bologna and Turin following other protests.
On Oct 18, 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.
Anti-riot police clashes with demonstrators at Piazza Duomo in Milan, on Oct 17, 2026.
PHOTO: AFP
A supermarket on a shopping street leading off the Duomo plaza was ransacked, garbage cans overturned and scooters and bicycles vandalised.
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.”
Far-right prime minister Meloni on Oct 17 called the vandals “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. AFP