Sawt Falasteen - 'Free the mountains!": clashes at Milan protest over Winter Olympics

Demonstrators fired flares and threw stones at police, who dispersed them with water cannon following an otherwise peaceful march the day after the opening Olympic Games ceremony in the northern Italian city.

The police had been on high alert after violent clashes during a protest in Turin last weekend in which over 100 officers were injured.

Protesters had earlier held up banners slamming a range of issues, from the use of artificial snow and tree felling, to a housing crisis in the country's financial and fashion capital.

"The Games are no longer sustainable from an environmental or a social point of view, their time is up," 29-year-old protester Francesca Missana told AFP.

Critics of the Winter Games complain about the impact of infrastructure on fragile mountain environments, as well as the widespread energy- and water-intensive use of artificial snow.

Others say host city Milan has become unliveable for many, with locals squeezed by soaring living costs amid an influx of wealthy new residents attracted by a tax scheme.

"These Games were promoted as sustainable and cost-neutral," complained Alberto di Monte, one of the organisers of the march, which was called by unions, housing-rights groups and activists.

But with these being one of the most geographically dispersed Games in history -- unfolding in several sites spread across the Italian Alps -- billions spent were spent to build roads rather than protect the mountains, di Monte told AFP.

And meanwhile, Milan has been transformed into a "pleasant Disneyland for tourists", hosting a string of major events but neglecting its residents, he said.

"Let's take back the city, free the mountains!" read one protester's banner, while another with a picture of a drop of water read: "The Olympics are drying me out."

Demonstrator Giovanni Gaiani, 69, slammed the decision to cut down hundreds of trees to make the contested Milan-Cortina bobsleigh track.

Fellow protesters held up dozens of cardboard trees, before spreading them out over the ground as if lying where they were felled.

"Free mountain, less ICE, more glacier", read another banner.

There has been anger in Italy over the presence of some agents from the US immigration enforcement agency ICE as part of security for the American delegation.

Police with riot helmets could be seen on standby near the demonstration, where some protesters marched waving Palestinian flags.

O.Mousa--SF-PST