Battered and bruised from
a day of violent rioting, Rome was devastated by floods just days
later.
Of all the anti-capitalist
demonstrations staged on October 15 during the worldwide Indignados
protest, only those in Rome turned violent. The demonstration in Rome
started peacefully, but soon hooded members of Italy’s anarchist
group Black Bloc infiltrated the crowds and began rioting in the city
centre, smashing shop and bank windows, spraying graffiti on walls,
and setting cars and scooters on fire. Members of Black Bloc then
clashed with police for some six hours near Piazza San Giovanni.
Police were able to arrest
only 12 of what were estimated to be hundreds of the violent
demonstrators who caused an estimated 3 million euro in damages and
injured some 135 people.
In the wake of the event,
Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, placed a one-month ban on
demonstrations in central Rome.
While the city was still
recovering, Mother Nature dealt the city another blow. On October
20, a violent rainstorm lashed the city, dumping approximately 120mm
of rain in just three hours.
Flash floods paralyzed the
city and environs for hours, causing one death and severely
disrupting public transportation and halting traffic. Noting that the
city had not experienced such a damaging storm since 1953, mayor
Alemanno declared a state of emergency.
