Agitators Sabotage Winter Olympics Opening, Throw Fireworks as Police Fight Back with Water Cannon, Tear Gas

Protests and sabotage marked the opening of the Winter Olympics in Milan as Italian police used water cannons and tear gas to beat back demonstrators.

The Olympics opened Friday, but after the ceremony was done, thousands of protesters took to the streets, according to the New York Post.

Agitators had a litany of causes, among them a rule change that banned men from competing as women.

Some of the marchers were protesting on behalf of the Palestinian cause.

WATCH: Reporter screams in pain as anti-Olympics protesters fire fireworks directly at media in Milan, Italy https://t.co/Q9RH3ry4Cg pic.twitter.com/isd31WjadY

— Rapid Report (@RapidReport2025) February 7, 2026

Flares and fireworks lit up the streets are marchers set them off against police.

The New York Post reported that the crowd during the five hours of demonstrations reached 5,000 people. Five of them were arrested.

“Long live working-class neighborhoods,” one banner said, while another added, “Homes for families, uniforms out of neighborhoods.”

Flares fired at police and media in Milan as anti-Olympics protests spread

Thousands marched past Olympic Village opposing Milano Cortina 2026

Italy passed preventive detention decree 🅱️efore the Games opened

Protesters say public funds burned on Olympics instead of healthcare pic.twitter.com/2XYDvi5L7R

— Boi Agent One (@boiagentone) February 7, 2026

“These Games are built as a major event based on useless projects, concrete construction, and exploitation of precarious labor, which will not benefit the working classes,” protestor Mattia Scolari said.

“We are here to protest a development model based on speculation and the lowering of labor protection,” Scolari added.

Activists said the environment was a loser in the Games.

“The Games are no longer sustainable from an environmental or a social point of view, their time is up,” Francesca Missana, 29, said, according to France 24.

Protesters also objected to the decision to cut down trees to make room for the bobsled track.

Later Saturday, attacks on rail lines linking the various Olympic sites snarled travel, according to the Daily Mail.

Parts of the rail lines were shut down for several hours.

The Italian Transport Ministry said the attacks were of “unprecedented seriousness” as other protesters tried to storm a road leading to an Olympic venue.

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