Pro-Palestine rioters clashed with police and smashed up an iconic Italian railway station in a “shameful” nationwide outbreak of violence on Monday.
Organised mobs across Italy came together for the so-called “Let’s Block Everything” mass demonstration in cities including Rome, Milan, Naples, Bologna and more.
In Milan, harrowing footage emerged showing masked crowds of youths storming Milano Centrale station.
More than 10 people were later arrested in Milan, while some 60 police officers suffered bruising or more serious injuries.
PICTURED: Pro-Palestine demonstrators line up against police in Milano Centrale station
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REUTERS
PICTURED: A protester hurls a brick at police in Milan
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REUTERS
Images reminiscent of the country’s chaotic “Years of Lead” saw columns of riot police attempting to block protesters from accessing the station.
Youths were caught on camera throwing bricks at police – before marching past the barricade into the railway station in a bid to cause havoc.
Once inside, demonstrators moved to hurl chairs, smash glass and daub graffiti over the grand 94-year-old building.
In Venice, police were forced to use water cannons to break up demonstrations.
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PICTURED: A chair flies through the air as riot police watch on inside Milano Centrale station
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REUTERS
PICTURED: Pro-Gaza demonstrators attempt to barge through the front gates to Milan’s railway station
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REUTERS
Activists also descended on ports in coastal cities Genoa, Livorno and Trieste, with dockworkers blocking harbours in apparent solidarity with Palestine.
The workers said they were attempting to stop Italy being involved in the arms supply chain to Israel.
In communist hotbed Bologna, protesters blocked a motorway before being dispersed by water cannons.
In Rome, tens of thousands gathered outside the capital’s main railway station before a march which blocked a major ring road.
PICTURED: Keffiyeh-clad thugs smash windows and pile furniture inside the station
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REUTERS
PICTURED: Smoke fills the air inside Milano Centrale as riot police rush to beat back activists
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REUTERS
And in Naples, clashes with police erupted as crowds forced their way into the main railway station – with some delaying rail services after protesters gained access to the tracks.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said: “The images coming from Milan are shameful: self-styled ‘pro-Palestine’, self-styled ‘antifa’ and self-styled ‘pacifists’ devastating the station and sparking clashes with law enforcement.
“Violence and destruction that have nothing to do with solidarity and will not change the lives of people in Gaza one iota, but will have real consequences for Italian citizens, who will end up suffering and paying for the damage caused by these hooligans.”
PICTURED: Milano Centrale railway station – before the violence broke out
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GB NEWS
Ms Meloni is a key Israel backer within Europe, alongside Germany – but contrary to the UK, France and Spain.
She has ruled out recognising a Palestinian state.
Italian unions and student groups condemned a so-called “inertia of the Italian and EU governments”.
“If we don’t block what Israel is doing, if we don’t block trade, the distribution of weapons and everything else with Israel, we will never achieve anything,” Walter Montagnoli, the national secretary of the CUB union, said at a march in Milan.
