(ANSA) - Rome, December 15 - Hooded youths who rioted in Rome on Tuesday, the day of a crunch confidence vote Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government won, caused around 20 million euros in damage, Mayor Gianni Alemanno said Wednesday. The youths infiltrated what was meant to be a peaceful student demonstration against the government and its bill to reform Italy's higher education system before unleashing mayhem that left over 100 hurt, 57 police and 62 protesters. They attacked police with clubs, stones, smoke bombs and paint, set alight cars, police vans and barricades they had set up and trashed one of the capital's main shopping streets, smashing windows and throwing around everything in their path. Officers detained 41 protesters, many of whom went on the rampage wearing crash helmets and balaclavas. ''The damage is large-scale, we are talking about around 20 million euros,'' said Alemanno, a member of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party.
''We'll now make a more careful assessment''.
''The City will be a civil plaintiff in trials against those who caused these incidents and this damage. ''It's not acceptable that the city and its inhabitants, who have nothing to do with it and are totally innocent, should pay the price of these protests''. On Tuesday Alemanno compared the scenes to the political violence and terrorism Italy endured in the 1970s and 80s, the so-called 'years of lead'. The area affected by the riots bared some scars from Tuesday's urban warfare, with several shop windows smashed and cash machines out of order, but otherwise a massive clean-up operation during the night had restored it to normality.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni was due to report to parliament on the riot on Wednesday. Trade unionists, left-wing parties and Abruzzo inhabitants demanding more investment in the region's reconstruction after last year's deadly L'Aquila earthquake also took to the streets of the capital Tuesday.