Val Susa, Italy - Six hours of battle against TAV high speed railway

la stampa (Turin daily)

03/07/2011 - Chiomonte (TURIN)
Guerrillas in the Susa Valley. On the day of national protest against the TAV violent clashes have followed for hours around the site in Chiomonte, where in the coming weeks they will start to dig the exploratory tunnel of the new Turin-Lyon line.
The black bloc went into action, trying to enter the site of the Maddalena di Chiomonte: the number of wounded among the police is very high: nearly 200. Also injured an employee of the site and many No Tav demonstrators - a few dozen - the number is still unknown.
Four protesters were arrested and another reported on the loose. But there is also a peaceful part of the event, emphasized in the evening - now ended in a riot - No Tav mayors and many of the Susa Valley.
The security forces deployed to protect the fenced area in recent days, after the evacuation on Monday, received large stones, sticks, firecrackers and other dangerous objects, such as hammers used on public transport to break the windows in case of danger. At the end there are 188 police injured (37) carabinieri, (130) police of the mobile unit, a manager, five officials and finance police (15), some fairly serious. Among the No Tav counting the wounded, is difficult if not impossbile: one was brought to the CTO of Turin, six have needed an ambulance, another fifteen were medicated directly in the hut of the garrison Table No. A Venetian student of 19 years was admitted to hospital in Sousse with "chest and abdominal polytrauma" She would have been hit by a tear gas canister at close range.
For the police the protesters were a total of 6,000, for the No Tav tenfold. "We have over 50 thousand," they said triumphantly this morning when the situation was still quite quiet. Work on the site was stopped, but will resume tomorrow, also closed the A32 Turin-Bardonecchia, while long queues have formed on minor roads. Among the many protesters were those who came from outside, from many Italian regions and from abroad (English speaking), France, Germany, Spain. Among them lurked the professionals of violent confrontation. They are those who transformed the woods just above the square of the Magdalene into a battlefield. The collision was violent and it was also heard miles away, hearing the explosions of paper bombs thrown by protesters and the trails of tear gas fired by police to ward off attackers in the woods of Ramats.
In the afternoon, a new front has created more tension in the valley, in the area of ​​the hydroelectric plant, where on Monday the bulldozer, escorted by the police had opened the way to sweep away the barricades erected in over a month of occupation " The Free Republic of the Madalena. " "We've won - Perino [No TAV political leader]said at the end of the day - because we wanted to lay siege to the site and we did". The calm has returned in the evening, just before sunset, when the deck of a delegation No Tav of Valle Clarea, arms raised, met with police leaders and officers. But the No Tav protest does not end, it will continue in the area rented by the river, now converted into a camp. It is hoped that the violence is over, but the aversion to the work continues to be very strong and no one really knows what will happen.

http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/07/03/foto/tav_gli_scontri-18590932/1/?ref=HREA-1