(ANSA) - Florence, March 6 - A fresh protest took place in
Florence Tuesday after the fatal shooting of a Senegalese man in
the Tuscan capital on Monday.
Some 300 people, almost all Senegalese living in Florence and
other parts of Tuscany, staged a sit-in for the late Idy Diene
to which Florence Mayor Diego Nardella had also been invited.
But Nardella was forced to abandon the event after being
pushed and jostled by some Senegalese as well as young far-left
activists from so-called 'social centre' squats.
A man who spat on Nardella was cited.
Taking his leave, Nardella said "the history of Florence is
the story of dialogue, the city understands the anger for the
death of a man but does not accept violence".
After staging the sit-in near where the victim died at the
Vespucci bridge over the Arno, not far from the uS consulate,
the protesters tried to start a march which had not been
authorised.
But the march was turned back after protesters tried to break
through a police cordon.
An imam who said prayers for those assembled, Izzedin Elrir,
helped calm the situation.
Elrir told reporters that Diene would probably be buried back
home in Senegal.
Protests had already turned ugly on Monday night as
Senegalese protesters overturned flower boxes in the historic
centre.
A 65-year-old Italian man, Roberto Pirrone, shot 54-year-old
street hawker Idy Diene.
He said he had initially been planning to commit suicide
because of money problems but had then decided to shoot the
first person who came his way.