Italian police arrested six people on charges stemming from the riots in Rome on Saturday, the Ansa news agency said on Monday. The six, all about 20 years old, were arrested in Tuscany on Sunday as they made their way home from the "day of rage" protests in Rome.
Hundreds of thousands participated in marches against Wall Street greed in 82 countries. But unlike elsewhere, in Rome it turned into a riot that the Italian media have likened to a “civil war.”
During clashes with police, anarchist protestors, the so called “black bloc,” torched cars and smashed shop windows, leaving 135 people were injured, including 105 police officers. Police detained 20 people, 12 of whom were taken into custody.
A “black bloc” member told the newspaper La Repubblica on Monday that Italian anarchists had used demonstrations in Greece as training exercises.
“Once a month for a year we took the ferry from Brindisi to Greece. Our friends from Athens told us that a street war is an art in which the right organization wins. A year ago we wanted to smash everything. Now we know how to do it. We won in Rome because we had a plan, we were organized”, the newspaper quoted a 30 year-old man from Apulia in southern Italy as saying.
