1.
GV & SV Police with teargas & rifles (3 shots)
0.13

2.
GV Smoke belching from road from grenades
0.18

3.
SV Police charge down streets
0.29

4.
SV Police arrest girl
0.35

5.
SV Police down street in jeep convoy & more police arriving
0.46

6.
SV Rioters turn car over in street
0.51

7.
SV People looking on
0.54

8.
SV's Burning car (3 shots)
1.07



Initials ESP/2256 ESP/2314



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Street barricades went up again in Reggio in the Southern tip of Italy, on Friday (23 March) as a general strike paralysed the city for the second day running.

During the morning, a series of explosions shook the central square, but there was only a small amount of damage.

However, in the city's main street, the Corsa Garibaldi, protesting youths dragged a car across the road and set it alight. When police moved in the arrest they youths, they were stoned. They had to use tear gas to clear away the demonstrators.

The strike began when Rome's Parliament refused to hear Reggio's appeal for more prestige and the power to grant amnesties for one thousand people facing trial for their part in an earlier uprising.

The strike has closed shops, banks and businesses, and has kept public transport at a standstill.

SYNOPSIS: In Reggio Calabria on Friday, heavily armed police had to use teargas to clear away crowds of rioting people who'd brought chaos to the heart of the city for two consecutive days.

A series of explosions from small home made bombs shook an area in the heart of the city, but there were no reports of heavy damage. Almost as quickly as police erected barriers in the city, demonstrators threw them down.

Police in armoured cars patrolled the worst-hit streets and arrested about twenty people. In four hours of rioting on Friday, hundreds of windows were smashed, police were stoned, and a car was overturned and set on fire.

The violence started out of the strike, which began after Rome's Parliament refused to bow to demands from Reggio for more status. The strike has stopped commerce and brought public transport to a standstill.