Over 60 police injured in protests against Italy-France high-speed rail line

ROME — More than 60 police officers were injured during a protest in northern Italy against the construction of the Turin-Lyon high-speed rail line, according to Italian daily Corriere della Sera. The demonstration, organized by the "No Tav" movement, drew an estimated 20,000 people before splintering into clashes with security forces, most severely in the town of Chiomonte near the Alpine tunnel construction sites. Protesters breached fences and entered construction zones, damaging equipment and hurling stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails, the report said. Demonstrators also set fire to four police vehicles. Police responded with water cannon and tear gas but were unable to disperse the crowd. Train services between Bussoleno and Borgone were temporarily suspended, and a section of the local highway was closed to traffic, according to the report. The high-speed rail project, backed by the European Union, is being built to connect Turin and Lyon through a 57.5-kilometer tunnel beneath the Alps. Its cost is estimated at more than 26 billion euros.