Bologna protest unrest leaves officers injured, media report

Violent clashes between police and protesters in Bologna, Italy, on Saturday left 75 police officers injured and resulted in five arrests, four of them minors born between 2008 and 2010, Italian outlet Il Post reported, citing the city's police headquarters. Seven people were formally denounced and dozens more identified, police said.

The unrest began during a cost-of-living protest organised by the movement "Italia in piazza," which drew a large crowd to Piazza Minghetti in the early afternoon before marching towards the railway station via Via Marconi, Via dei Mille and Via Indipendenza. When the march reached the station, several dozen protesters began throwing bottles and stones at police, who responded with water cannon and tear gas; police fired more than 400 tear gas canisters in total, Il Post reported.

Clashes continued into the evening, during which demonstrators set fire to rubbish bins and destroyed shop windows, café tables, bike-share bicycles, traffic lights, road signs and 12 police vehicles, police said. A Burger King restaurant and a nearby tobacco shop near the station were also damaged.

New clashes broke out later that night in the Bolognina district, after riot police arrived at Piazza Lucio Dalla at 9:30pm during what had been a peaceful gathering, with people sitting on the grass and others using a nearby skate park. A police source told BolognaToday officers had come to check protesters were not regrouping after the station clashes; the officers' manner was perceived by those present as a provocation, sparking fresh unrest in which tear gas was fired under a sheltered area, making the air difficult to breathe.

Police said around 300 young people, described as largely of foreign origin and many with their faces covered, were responsible for the violence, though Il Post reported the demonstrators had no single organising structure and included both second-generation and Italian-born teenagers who mobilised largely through TikTok rather than organised political or student groups.