Italy overrun by riots

Atalanta players trying to calm down their incensed fans after they broke part of a barrier in protest of the death of a fan, top, while other supporters hold a protest in front of Italian RAI TV along with a banner which reads, ' For Raciti we can stop the league, but the death of a tifosi (football fan) has so significance.' Fillipo Raciti was a police officer who died following fan and police clashes in February 2007, bottom.Photo: AFP

The Italian government held an emergency meeting Monday after the police killing of a football fan sparked riots by supporters across the country.
Officials of a national watchdog agency on sporting security were meeting at the interior ministry in Rome to discuss the new troubles which, according to ANSA news agency, left at least 40 police injured.
Italian football federation leaders were also to discuss the fallout from the running battles outside many stadiums after the shooting, which authorities have described as a "tragic error".
Gabriele Sandri was hit in the neck by a shot fired by a policeman at an Italian motorway rest area where rival fans had been fighting on Sunday. An autopsy on his body was carried out as controversy raged.
The 31-year-old policeman, who was not named, said the shot went off accidentally as he was running, just seconds after firing a warning round in the air, a newspaper reported.
"I was not aiming anywhere, I was not pointing at anyone," the officer told Corriere della Sera newspaper, adding that he was at least 200 metres (yards) away from Sandri who was in a car at the rest area.
"The first shot I fired in the air and the second went off as I was running. What a fool. Now I know what happened, I am devastated."
"Now I have destroyed two families, that of this boy and mine," added the officer.
In a furious reaction to the shooting, militant fans across Italy turned on police targets forcing three of Sunday's matches to be called off.
At least 40 police required hospital treatment, including one officer who was seriously injured after being struck with an iron bar, according to ANSA news agency.
"What a Nightmare!" exclaimed the leading sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport. "Into what darkness has the passion of Italians sunk?" it asked, saying that a "sub-culture" had emerged of "blackmail, humiliation and planned violence."
Hundreds of fans, many masked and carrying batons, attacked a police barracks in Rome, burning a bus and other vehicles. A match between AS Roma and Cagliari was among those cancelled.
The crowd broke into the headquarters of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) and looted the offices.
Police charged the crowd, firing tear gas at the fans to restore order. Three people, including one woman, were arrested.
In Bergamo, Atalanta fans clashed with police before their game against AC Milan, forcing the referee to halt play seven minutes after kick-off.
The Atalanta 'Ultras', as hardcore fans are known, charged a glass barricade separating fans from the pitch, breaking it in two places.
In Milan, some 400 fans threw stones at police headquarters, while outside the stadium Lazio and Inter supporters chanted anti-police slogans.
Before the Siena-Livorno game and at other stadiums, supporters shouted "murderers" at police and security officers.
According to witnesses, Sandri was travelling to Milan by car with other Lazio fans to attend the match against Inter Milan when clashes with Juventus fans started at a service station.
"We are still investigating the exact dynamic of the facts but it seems that this was the tragic error by a police officer who intervened to stop a fight degenerating," said Interior Minister Giuliano Amato late Sunday.
La Repubblica newspaper called the fan reaction an "Ultra War."
Corriere della Serra, recalling the killing in February of a policeman outside the Catania Stadium in Sicily, said Sandri's death "became the fuse that relit the fire."
La Stampa newspaper said "When all that unites is hatred -- between fans, leaders, extremists and police -- everything becomes possible, even one (gun) shot too many."