A young woman in a red outfit was knocked flat by a police water cannon during far-left protests in Bologna, Italy, over the weekend.
The demonstrator, carrying a handbag and walking near the front of the crowd, was sent flying by a direct blast of high-pressure water before slamming onto the pavement, footage shows. The incident came as unrest spilled from neighboring France into Italian cities including Milan, Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo and Turin.
Police detained 271 young people during Milan violence on Sunday, the second day of clashes, authorities said Monday. Of those taken to stations, 32 were arrested, including 23 minors and 13 foreign nationals. Another 28 people were reported to judicial authorities. The previous day, 28 protesters were arrested across northern cities, according to a police report released Sunday.
In Milan’s central Piazza Duomo, officers in riot gear fired tear gas and deployed water cannons after several hundred hooded protesters smashed store windows and set trash cans ablaze. Demonstrators also threw stones and looted stores during the clashes.
The Bologna water cannon strike on the woman in red became one of the defining images of the Italian unrest, which remained far smaller than the riots across the French border where nearly 2,500 arrests were made over the same weekend.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, 47, denounced the violence and pressed opposition leaders to clearly condemn destructive acts.
“Demonstrating is a right. Setting our cities ablaze is not,” she said.
The protests followed growing public anger over rising inflation, housing costs, stagnant wages and general malaise across Italy. Meloni faces her biggest governing test yet as she heads toward elections next year leading Italy’s longest-serving single continuous government in modern history.
French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged a crackdown following what he called “apocalyptic” violence in his country, while former U.S. President Donald Trump blamed “immigrants with hatred in their hearts” for the French riots amid fears the country has become “ungovernable.”
Meloni continues to press political rivals for unequivocal condemnation of property damage and violent acts as Italy monitors whether the unrest will reignite in coming days.