Hundreds of masked young people attacked police and looted shops in the heart of Milan on Saturday after a march against Italy’s rising cost of living turned into hours of rioting in front of the city’s famous cathedral.
More than 5,000 people joined the “Italia in piazza” march against high fuel prices and low wages, Corriere della Sera reported. Groups dressed in black broke away and pelted police in Piazza del Duomo with stones, bottles, metal barriers and homemade explosives. Police answered with tear gas and a water cannon.
"Demonstrating is a right. Turning our cities into battlegrounds is not." — Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
Rioters wrecked and looted a Carabinieri car, damaged armored police vans and set fires in the square. On nearby Corso Vittorio Emanuele, they smashed the windows of a Foot Locker store and carried off goods. Shops pulled down their shutters, tourists fled, and the Duomo metro station was closed.
Emergency services treated 25 people, including 15 members of the security forces, Corriere reported, adding that none was seriously hurt. A senior police official, Angelo De Simone, was hit in the head by a paving stone. About 50 people were detained, almost half of them minors, ANSA reported.
Clashes also broke out in Turin, Bergamo and Bologna, where police said 36 officers were hurt and four minors were arrested.
“Demonstrating is a right. Turning our cities into battlegrounds is not,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, urging opposition parties not to be “ambiguous” about the violence. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said the violence against police and the serious damage to the city were “unjustifiable.”
Photo: Riot police line up in Piazza del Duomo in Milan during clashes with protesters, Oct. 17, 2026. Still from Local Team video posted on X
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