Students riot across Italy in protest over austerity measures as Greek shipyard workers demonstrate in support of arrested strikers

• Students stage protests in major cities across Italy against prime minister Mario Monti's reforms today
  
• Six police officers injured in Rome
• More than 100 shipyard workers, who say they have not been paid for months, were arrested for storming a government building in Athens
• Their arrests were met with more protests outside an Athens court today
  
• Meanwhile in Crete farmers tried to invade the island's second largest airport
  

By Emma Clark

Published: 14:48 EST, 5 October 2012 | Updated: 14:48 EST, 5 October 2012

Angry and violent protests against austerity measures continue to flare across Europe, with thousands of students across Italy fighting cutbacks.

Thousands of university and high school students clashed with Italian police during a number of marches in major cities, including Rome, Milan and Naples, where the crowds chanted slogans and carried banners such as ‘save schools not banks’.

Up to six policemen were wounded in Rome, police said, after students wearing motorcycle helmets and carrying home-made shields pelted them with stones and tried to rush a police van before being driven back in a baton charge.

Students wearing motorcycle helmets clash with police in Rome where six officers were injured

A demonstrator lights a flare during one of the protest in Turin, where a number of students were arrested for scuffles

The protests were the latest in a string of strikes and large-scale street protests against prime minister Mario Monti's spending cuts and economic reforms.

‘The protest is to renew the political class, to get rid of those who are corrupt,’ said Giulio Bianco, 18.

‘The politicians make the ordinary people pay. These are heavy sacrifices, and it is a risky policy to keep imposing them,’ the high school student from Rome said.

TV pictures from Bologna showed students throwing eggs at a branch of UniCredit bank and trampling on a BNP Paribas flag, while in Palermo protesters burnt copies of political manifestos.

Young people have borne the brunt of rising joblessness in Italy, where the youth unemployment rate is 35 per cent, more than three times the overall level.

‘We are worried about our prospects and about the future of our country,’ Madalina Ursu, 19, told Reuters. 

Police trying to stop a demonstration of students angry with their government's economic reforms

In Turin demonstrators march through the streets behind a banner urging the prime minister to stop his cut backs

Italian riot police hit with red paint detain a protestor in the clashes

Another students carrying a banner is held back by a group of police after they regain control of the street

Yesterday in Greece police clashed with shipyard workers protesting pay arrears, after they broke into the Defence Ministry grounds, which led to more than 100 arrests.

Meanwhile hundreds of farmers on tractors tried to invade the country's second-busiest airport in Crete during an anti-austerity protest.

Greece has been gripped by a severe financial crisis since late 2009, and waves of spending cuts and tax hikes have led to frequent strikes and demonstrations.

The nation's three-month-old coalition government is currently preparing a major new austerity package demanded by rescue creditors.

Unions have promised new protests and a general strike next week when the government's new 13.5 billion Euro program is debated in parliament - where the conservative-led coalition controls enough seats to pass the measures.

A protestor is dragged to the floor in Turin, while another covers herself on the ground, surrounded by police

A coloured smoke bomb is released by a student during the marches

Yesterday in Athens more than 100 protesters forced open the shuttered entrance to the defence ministry complex, crossing the courtyard and blocking the entrance to the general staff building.

Riot police were called in to force back the demonstrators, who were demanding to meet with ministry officials.

Greece's top military officer, General Michalis Kostarakos, was heckled by the shipyard workers when he came out to speak to them by using their portable loudspeaker.

‘First get off my base,’ Kostarakos told the protesters, arguing that the military had no part in the workers' dispute with the government.

Police said 106 people were detained for questioning, prompting another protest gathering outside police headquarters and court building today.

Misdemeanor charges were filed against the protesting shipyards workers, 94 of which were detained at the scene and subsequently released, while another 12 individuals were sent before an Athens first instance prosecutor.

Riot police used pepper spray to prevent a group of protesters from barging into the building.

Shipyard workers support their arrested colleagues when they are taken with handcuffs before a prosecutor at a court in Athens, Greece

Policemen escort two arrested shipyard workers to the court today following their protest yesterday

A shipyard worker raises his fist after being released from court. Charges were filed against 106 protesting shipyards workers after they broke down a barricade and entered the government's defence ministry

Workers from the Skaramangas Shipyards, which deals mainly with military contacts, say they have not been paid in months.

Scuffles broke out as protesters tried to push through the police cordon protecting the entrance to the main building.

On the southern island of Crete, hundreds of farmers taking part in an anti-austerity protest yesterday tried to invade the terminal and the runway of Iraklio airport.

Police kept them off with tear gas, and one man was detained for trying to drive his tractor onto the runway.

Airport authorities said flights were not affected by the protest. Crete is a major tourist destination, attracting more than 44,000 flights last year.

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said earlier this week that there were still considerable differences between the government and Greece's debt inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank over the new austerity package.

But he said he hopes to clinch a deal by next week.

The country has been in recession since 2008, and the total contraction is projected to reach a cumulative 25 per cent at the end of next year. 

A key member of the shipyard workers union raises his handcuffs from the window at the court. he is one of 12 sent before a court facing misdemeanor charges

Angry and emotional workers defend the actions of their colleagues outside the court to the press and public