Italy announces major crackdown after mass far-left riot injures 100 police officers

Dramatic images from the Alpine city showed demonstrators dressed in black battling police in the streets.

Further footage showed objects being thrown at officers as police lines were forced backward and fires and flares raged.

The riot had broken out when the Askatasuna social centre, which had been occupied by left-wing activists for years, was finally cleared out.

Authorities said a total of 108 security personnel were hurt in the violence.

Protesters were later identified to have thrown bottles, stones, homemade incendiary devices and smoke bombs, set fire to rubbish bins and an armoured police vehicle, and used street furniture and uprooted lampposts as weapons.

Europe analyst Matthew Tyrmand told Fox News after the chaos: "It's not that dissimilar to what you see in the US at times.

He warned of an "odd coalition of leftist groups, anarchists, pro-Palestinian groups and random individuals coming together".

Northern Italy - particularly student-heavy cities like Turin - has long been home to a strong hard-left presence.

In Milan last year, pro-Palestine mobs waged similar battles against police, partially destroying parts of the city's famous railway station.

Mr Tyrmand added: "Italy has a long history of hardcore leftist organising... They’re cut from the same cloth. Marxist movements are truly of their genesis."

"When a right-wing leader like Meloni comes into power, they get especially ginned up," he said. "Violence is their modus operandi. I expect it will be quelled because Meloni is a tough figure."

As he predicted, Ms Meloni has clamped down hard.

Italian police will be given the power to detain troublemakers before street rallies to prevent them from spreading unrest, under a new decree passed on Thursday.

It was adopted on the eve of the opening ceremony for the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.

Officials have already pledged to tighten security in a bid to deal with any protests against the presence of US Ice officers, who have been sent to Europe alongside Vice President JD Vance.

Earlier this week, the PM said she had visited a hospital in Turin to bring her solidarity "on behalf of Italy" to two of the injured officers.

"Against them: hammers, Molotov cocktails, nail-filled paper bombs, stones launched with catapults, blunt objects of every kind, and jammers to prevent the police from communicating," she said.

Quoting one officer, Ms Meloni added: "They were there to kill us."

"These are not protesters. These are organised criminals. This is attempted murder," she went on.

The decree also includes measures against pickpockets, youth gangs, a ban on the sales of knives to minors, and greater self-defence guarantees for police officers and members of the public who respond to assaults.

The leader of the Green Left Alliance opposition party, Angelo Bonelli, raged that the bill was repressive and it would have been more effective to give the police more funds to fight crime.

He called preventive arrests "a serious violation of the constitutional right to demonstrate".