Protesters and Italian police clash over train installation

Protesters and Italian police clash over train installation{mosimage}Police with clubs clashed with demonstrators Thursday who were throwing objects at them in the latest anti-train protest in an Italian Alpine valley which will host some events of the Winter Olympic games in February, news reports said.

SKY TV24, a private television station, said that a member of its camera crew was slightly injured during the clash.

Paramilitary police in Susa, a town near the planned construction site for a high-speed rail line, said they did not have any immediate information about the reported clash.

The Italian news agency Apcom reported that police used clubs to beat back demonstrators who were trying to force a roadblock in the area to reach the site.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi told reporters in Rome that the rail link would be built.

It is a ”work which we can’t give up and which carries all the guarantees from an environmental point of view,” Berlusconi said.

Environmentalists and local residents have been protesting for weeks against the construction, which they contend will damage the environment. Local mayors urged demonstrators to try to find another road to reach the construction site, Apcom said.

-The Associated Press