Police lobbed tear gas at isolated protesters as a massive crowd of up to 100,000 people took off on an anti-G8 march to the center of Genoa, where a young Italian rioter was killed on Friday.
Some 2km to 3km away from the head of the march, police stationed on the seafront fired tear gas at masked activists, who had broken away from the main march, and threw bottles and rocks at riot police.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The fighting broke out when police prevented the march taking its planned route along the seafront, which would have brought it close to the summit venue, and forced it to take a narrower side street.
The majority of the protesters followed the new route, escorted by stewards, but a smaller group of a few hundred radicals reacted angrily and attacked police.
Moving along the seafront, the crowd responded by chanting: "Assassins, assassins!"
The new confrontation erupted as about 30,000 and 60,000 people in two groups marched to the site where 23-year-old Carlo Giuliani was slain a day before in street clashes that left more than 200 people injured.
Pictures of Giuliani's last moments as he joined a mob smashing a police jeep and then lying dead under a police vehicle appeared in every Italian paper.
Police said he was a member of a group of punks that hung around Genoa. He came from a comfortable background in a left-wing middle-class family, but was unemployed and had a criminal record for minor offences.
"I've known him for years. He was an ordinary kid. Of course, he was no pacifist, but that's no reason to shoot him in the head," said Attilio Rattu, a young Italian come to mourn his friend.
Italian authorities said manslaughter charges were being weighed against the policeman who shot the protester.
The 20-year-old policeman, a conscript in Italy's paramilitary Carabinieri force, was hospitalized for shock, police said, and prosecutors were investigating the incident.
Yesterday's demonstration, the third in as many days, came only hours after the G8 leaders rejected calls to suspend their meeting because of the protester's death.
In a statement on the summit's second day, the heads of the world's leading industrial powers insisted their talks focused on vital world issues like the economy, jobs, trade and aid, especially for Africa.
"We condemn firmly and absolutely the violence, overflowing into anarchy, of a small minority that we have seen at work here in Genoa and at recent international meetings," said the presidents and prime ministers from the US, Russia, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.
"It is vitally important that democratically elected leaders legitimately representing millions of people can meet to discuss areas of common concern," their statement said. "Our commitment and our work goes on."
They were less united in their closed-door talks on the environment. Delegates told journalists there was a serious split over the Kyoto accord on global warming between US President George W. Bush and his European partners.
Leaders were also due to review world trouble spots, especially the Middle East and Macedonia. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat urged the G8 to rein in Israeli "aggression" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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