Violent protests in Naples as Italy's Covid restrictions intensify

Scenes from Naples as demonstrators take to streets


Naples, Rome, and Barcelona all saw demonstrations and protests overnight against new Covid restrictions brought in to curb the rising second wave of cases in Europe.

Italian media reported several hundred demonstrators gathered in Naples on Friday, with some throwing rocks and smoke bombs at police.

Campania - the region in which the city falls - has gone into a fresh coronavirus measures amid rising cases across the country. Demonstrators expressed anger over an 11pm to 5am regional curfew brought in.

New cases in the country rose to over 19,000 on Friday – more than in the first few weeks of the pandemic last spring when the government ordered a lockdown.

Restaurant owners pack up in Rome. Credit: AP

Elsewhere in Italy, businesses in Rome expressed their anger at a new 9pm curfew aimed at limiting the spread of the virus.

Restaurant owners, forced to close before 9pm, displayed signs with crosses on them pronouncing their business "dead" due to the new measures.

More than 37,000 people have now died in Italy from the Covid-19.

Pedestrians walk a long Las Ramblas of Poblenou in Barcelona. Credit: AP

While in Barcelona nightclub owners honked car horns in protest against latest restrictions.

Authorities in the Spanish city contended with demonstrators blaring music in front of the Catalan regional government building - expressing their anger and asking for more economic assistance for one of the sectors most severely affected by the pandemic.

Restaurants and bars have been ordered to shut since October 14 and are allowed only to serve meals for take away or delivery.

A "Save Our Rights" protest march is due to be held in London on Saturday.

The group is planning a peaceful march to highlight the effect that lockdown and legislative changes have had on people's lives since the onset of the pandemic.