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Protests over pay and the cost of living sweep more than 50 Italian cities as armoured vehicles guard the Colosseum

A large crowd outside Rome's Colosseum, as riot police in Turin separately turned water cannons on students advancing toward the prefecture during the same strike.
A large crowd outside Rome's Colosseum, as riot police in Turin separately turned water cannons on students advancing toward the prefecture during the same strike.
Demonstrators near Rome's Altare della Patria, as 15,000 protesters separately marched into Genoa's port to protest arms shipments during Friday's 24-hour general strike.
Demonstrators near Rome's Altare della Patria, as 15,000 protesters separately marched into Genoa's port to protest arms shipments during Friday's 24-hour general strike.

About 20,000 people marched in Rome alone on Friday, with armoured vehicles deployed at the Circus Maximus to guard a military exhibition and the Colosseum placed under lockdown. Students, farmers and medical workers demonstrated across upwards of 50 cities, rallying against war, rearmament and the soaring cost of living. The unrest caps two weeks of growing tensions nationwide.

In Turin, manure bins were dumped outside city hall in the run-up to a general strike, while police in Vicenza turned water cannon on demonstrators.

One protester in Vicenza sustained a head injury after being struck by a tear gas canister amid clashes that forced officers to retreat behind a blockade.

Medical students in Rome told reporters that years on temporary contracts, some earning as little as €1,300 a month, had driven them onto the streets.

MoreReutersMass protests sweep Italy over pay and cost-of-living concernsIrish IndependentArmoured vehicles deployed near Colosseum as protesters march through Rome
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