Italian PM Meloni condemns 'hooligans' after masked rioters loot stores and set fires around Milan's cathedral in cost-of-living protest

About 50 demonstrators, many of them minors, were detained after the march turned violent on Saturday. At least two police officers were injured as masked protesters hurled stones and paving blocks at riot squads. Officers fought back with water cannon and tear gas. 'Demonstrating is a right. Setting our cities ablaze is not,' Giorgia Meloni wrote.

Rioters built burning barricades from bar tables and wrecked a carabinieri car.

The violence emptied Piazza del Duomo and the luxury Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcade.

Milan's centre-left mayor Giuseppe Sala called the protesters' grievances 'understandable'.