A fresh protest took place in
Florence Tuesday after the fatal shooting of a Senegalese man in
the Tuscan capital on Monday.
Some 300 people, almost all Senegalese living in Florence and
other parts of Tuscany, staged a sit-in to which Florence Mayor
Diego Nardella had also been invited.
But Nardella was forced to abandon the event after being
pushed and jostled by some Senegalese as well as young far-left
activists from so-called 'social centre' squats.
Taking his leave, Nardella said "the history of Florence is
the story of dialogue, the city understands the anger for the
death of a man but does not accept violence".
After staging the sit-in near where the victim died at the
Vespucci bridge over the Arno, not far from the uS consulate,
the protesters tried to start a march which had not been
authorised.
Protests had already turned ugly on Monday night as
Senegalese protesters overturned flower boxes in the historic
centre.
A 65-year-old Italian man, Roberto Pirrone, shot 54-year-old
street hawker Idy Diene.
He said he had initially been planning to commit suicide
because of money problems but had then decided to shoot the
first person who came his way.
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