Italy to dispatch 500 troops to 'defend Milan' after protests and looting

Italy's government will dispatch 500 army troops to "defend Milan" after two days of unrest that saw demonstrators clash with police, loot shops and vandalise property, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Monday.

The troop deployment is expected to form part of a package of security measures due to go before a cabinet meeting expected on Tuesday.

Luxury stores on Milan's Via Montenapoleone cleared their windows and shut early, bracing for a return of the violence that hit the city over the weekend.

Brands including Chanel, Tiffany and Dior had taken merchandise out of their displays as a precaution. Police patrolled the street, where a handful of tourists looked on.

"From words to action: 500 more troops to defend Milan," Salvini, head of the co-ruling right-wing League party, wrote on social media.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who faces a national election next year, condemned the violence.

She chaired a meeting with ministers and security chiefs on Monday to discuss the situation.

"The government will respond firmly to these attacks on the state, including through measures aimed at curbing violence by minors," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who also serves as deputy prime minister like Salvini, wrote on X.

Corriere della Sera newspaper said Meloni was considering extending preventive detention for minors and cracking down on youth gangs as part of the planned crackdown.

The measures would bring forward some provisions contained in an existing security bill currently being examined by parliament.

The weekend trouble began as an initially peaceful demonstration on Saturday over poor public services and rising costs.

Several hundred hooded protesters, many believed to be minors, then set bins ablaze and looted shops in the city centre.

Television footage showed the ransacked stores included sports retailers Decathlon and Arc'teryx and mobile phone operator Vodafone.

Stores such as clothing brands Levi's and Under Armour, as well as Decathlon, covered their shop windows with cardboard and wooden panels.

Italian police said it had detained 271 young people during unrest in Milan on Sunday.

Of those taken to police stations, 32 were arrested, including 23 minors and 13 foreign nationals, police said on Monday.

A further 28 people were reported to judicial authorities.

The unrest followed clashes on Saturday in Milan and other northern cities including Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo and Turin, where 28 protesters were arrested, according to a police report released on Sunday.

The disturbances echoed unrest in neighbouring France, where hundreds of thousands of people angered by rising living costs and declining public services took to the streets on Saturday in some of the country's most violent protests in years.