Hundreds of hooded, masked protesters rampaged through Romein some of the worst violence in the Italian capital for years Saturday,torching cars and breaking windows during a larger peaceful protest againstelites blamed for economic downturn.
Police repeatedly fired tear gas and water cannon inattempts to disperse them but the clashes with a minority of violentdemonstrators stretched into the evening, hours after tens of thousands ofpeople in Rome joined a global "day of rage" against bankers andpoliticians.
Smoke rose over many parts of the neighborhood between theColosseum and St John's Basilica, forcing many residents and peacefuldemonstrators to run into buildings and churches for shelter as militantprotesters ran wild.
After police managed to push the well-organized radicalsaway from the St John's area, they ravaged a major thoroughfare, the ViaMerulana -- building barricades with garbage cans and setting the netting ofthe scaffolding of a building on fire.
Discontent is smouldering in Italy over high unemployment,political paralysis and 60 billion euros ($83 billion) of austerity measuresthat have raised taxes and the cost of health care.
The violence at times resembled urban guerrilla warfare asprotesters hurled rocks, bottles and fireworks at police, who responded byrepeatedly charging the demonstrators.
Tens of people were injured, one of them critically, amongthe police and demonstrators, officials said.
At one point radicals surrounded a police van near St John'sBasilica, pelted it with rock and bottles, and set it on fire. The twooccupants managed to escape, television footage showed.
Some peaceful demonstrators also clashed with the militantsand turned some of them over to police.
BERLUSCONI DEMANDS CRACKDOWN ON RIOTERS
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said those responsible forthe rash of violence must be identified and punished, calling the rioting"a very worrying sign for civil society ... They (radicals) must becondemned by everyone without reservation."
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno ordered all public museums in thecapital closed for security reasons and he and politicians across Italy'spolitical spectrum denounced the disturbances.
"Unacceptable violence and devastation is happeningright now on the streets of Rome," said Pierluigi Bersani, head of theDemocratic Party, the largest in the opposition.
"Those who are carrying out what is nothing less thanurban guerrilla warfare are hurting the cause of people around the world whoare trying to freely express their discontent with the world economicsituation," he said.
Alemanno, noting that the demonstrators had calledthemselves "the indignant ones," said: "Those who are reallyindignant are the citizens of Rome."
The protest was one of many staged around the world onSaturday to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement in the UnitedStates, venting anger over years of economic and financial crisis since aglobal credit boom went bust in 2007.
The demonstration began peacefully but turned violent whenhundreds of hooded radicals known as "black blocs," who hadinfiltrated the larger group, set cars and garbage bins on fire.
The radicals, some of whom Alemanno said probably came fromelsewhere in Europe to help their Italian comrades, then charged throughseveral streets around the Colosseum, trashing windows of stores and banks.
One building believed to be a Defense Ministry annex caughtfire after the flames spread from a car. The protesters had earlier forcedtheir way into the annex and trashed its offices.
"The violence ruined the day but I expected it to endthis way," said Matteo Martini, 29. "People are tired and angry andcan't take it anymore. You can start a march peacefully but unless you break orhurl something no one hears you."
Italy's fractious coalition government has been forced topush through austerity measures to try to stop the economy -- the euro zone'sthird largest and one of its heaviest debtors -- from being sucked into thebloc's debt crisis.
Hours after the demonstration began police were still firingtear gas canisters and training water cannon on rioters in Piazza San Giovanni,the terminus of the demonstration, where a final rally was due to be held.
Masked demonstrators assaulted police vans with rocks,bottles and clubs in the San Giovanni area, which filled up with tear gas aspolice helicopters hovered above.
Some of the peaceful demonstrators tried to take refuge onthe steps of St. John's Basilica, one of Rome's largest churches and used byPope Benedict in his capacity as bishop of Rome.
The streets of central Rome were littered with rocks,bottles and garbage bins that had been overturned, and fire brigades drovearound the city trying to put out the fires.