ROME, Feb 9 (Reuters) – An anarchist group claimed responsibility on Monday for sabotaging rail infrastructure in northern Italy on Saturday and disrupting train traffic on the first full day of the Winter Olympics.
Police reported three separate episodes in different locations early on Saturday, causing delays of up to 2.5 hours for high-speed and regional services, especially around the city of Bologna.
No one was injured and no trains were damaged.
In a statement circulating online, an anarchist group said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s progressive crackdown on demonstrations had made confrontation on the streets “ineffective” and meant they had to find other forms of protest.
“It therefore seems necessary to adopt clandestine methods, decentralize the conflict and multiply its fronts, and resort to self-defense and sabotage in order to survive in the near future,” the anarchist statement said.
There was no immediate comment from police on the statement. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the Transport Ministry, promised to arrest the anarchists.
“We will do everything we can to track down and chase away these criminals wherever they hide, put them in prison and confront those who defend them,” he wrote on
The anarchists denounced the Olympics as a “glorification of nationalism,” saying the event provided a “testing ground” for crowd control and movement monitoring.
Shortly after Saturday’s attack on rail infrastructure, a small group of about a hundred hooded protesters threw flares and fireworks at police after breaking away from the main group of an anti-Olympic demonstration in Milan, co-host of the Games.
Meloni on Sunday condemned the street demonstrators and saboteurs as “enemies of Italy”.
