Milan cost-of-living march turns violent as police use water cannon and tear gas

The march and its first clashes

The Italia in Piazza march set off in Milan on Saturday, 17 October 2026, to protest the rising cost of living and government policy. Fanpage put the crowd at the start at more than 5,000 people, and the planned route wound through central streets from via Orefici to the Monumental Cemetery, passing piazza Cordusio and largo Cairoli. Trouble began in via Broletto, where Adnkronos reported bottles and other objects thrown at officers, followed by a brief police charge. The procession then split in two, with one part held in via Broletto inside a police cordon that let people leave but not enter, while the other moved toward piazza Duomo.

Piazza Duomo and the Galleria

In piazza Duomo, groups of young people dressed in black and with covered faces threw objects at officers in riot gear, who answered with tear gas, according to Fanpage. Reporters described broken glass, overturned tables, overturned building site equipment and debris across the square, while passers-by and tourists watched from the arcades with eyes stung by the gas. Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that police cleared the square and advanced along corso Vittorio Emanuele with a water cannon, dispersing protesters who were still resisting behind makeshift barricades of bins and barriers. Around twenty police vehicles, both vans and jeeps from the Reparto mobile, arrived with sirens to encircle the square and the cathedral. Later, around a hundred young people dressed in black moved into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, where police charged and firecrackers went off while luxury shop staff and customers pulled their shutters down. ANSA reported that the groups were young people from the city outskirts rather than black bloc, and that some waved an Albanian flag in reference to unrest in Tirana.

Injuries and arrests

ANSA reported a first tally from the 118 emergency service showing five young people aged between 18 and 30 taken to hospital with bruises and wounds judged minor at the time. Three went to the Niguarda hospital, one to the Policlinico and one to the Istituto Città Studi. Two more injured boys, aged 17 and 18, refused hospital transport and were treated at the scene. Fanpage reported that one police officer was hurt, and that some participants were stopped by police, according to information released in the afternoon.

Unrest in other cities

In Turin, Fanpage reported stones and bottles thrown at police in front of Porta Nuova station, and a Feltrinelli bookshop vandalized nearby. In Bologna, police used water cannons and tear gas during the demonstrations. The protests were called against the cost of living and government policy, and the incidents were concentrated in Milan, Turin and Bologna. Shops in central Milan pulled down their shutters as the violence moved between streets, and damage was reported to bus shelters and to windows of buildings in the affected areas.