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CNN Live At Daybreak

Police and Protesters Clash at G8 Summit

Aired July 20, 2001 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to take you right now to Genoa, Italy, this morning, where violence is going on at this moment.

Some protesters are there waiting for the G8 Summit of industrialized nations to take place. World leaders have been arriving in this Italian city over the past couple of days. Some 100,000 demonstrators are expected to be there. And this morning, violence has broken out. Bottles have been thrown. Police have fired tear gas.

And CNN's Alessio Vinci is actually in the streets right there now and can tell us more -- Alessio.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Colleen.

Well, I'm about a mile away from the location, where the site -- of the site of the summit where the world leaders are meeting. And about an hour ago, there has been a violent confrontation between the police and demonstrators about 300 yards behind my back here.

The police tried to cordon off the entire area of the summit. And we understand that several hundreds of demonstrators threw rocks, threw stones, other hard materials, at the police, who reacted by throwing and launching tear gas. It was a very short clash. It lasted about half an hour. But we understand, at this point, the situation is under control -- at least at this location.

We understand that there are other locations in town where the police is clashing at this time. We have seen a few minutes ago a column of APCs from the carabinieri, the military police, moving from one side to the other of the sealed-off area. So certainly, there remains a lot of tension in the streets of Genoa.

Now, to give you a little bit of a sense about how sealed the town is, I'm going to try to walk around a little bit here. We have this column of police here -- behind me about 500 policemen. And then there was a train station in main downtown Genoa. There is another group of policemen there sealing off the entire area.

And if can turn the camera around another 364 degrees, well, there would be policemen everywhere around it. It is just incredible -- 5,000 policemen, 5,000 army policemen. The army is also sealing off the port. This entire area of Genoa is completely sealed off. These demonstrators did not manage to come through. However, we also have to point out that these are not the anti- globalization demonstrators who have come here of 100,000 of them. These are an isolated groups. They are a group of anarchists. We understand from the German Interior Ministry that has sent a cable to -- a telex to the police here saying and warning that about 300 violent German anarchists were coming to Genoa. And we understand that these are the people who were involved this morning in the clashes -- back to you, Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: All right, CNN's Alessio Vinci in Genoa for us this morning.

We'll keep you up to date on developments there of course. Thanks very much.

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