The Italian government is holding new emergency talks on the Naples rubbish crisis today after a night of riots around a dump that authorities want to reopen.
Hundreds of demonstrators set alight the Pianura landfill in the western suburbs of the city and torched two buses outside the dump. Police used tear gas in a bid to force them away during clashes.
The government has vowed to find a speedy solution to public anger over an estimated 110,000 tonnes of rubbish left on the streets in the Naples region where the mafia has long controlled the lucrative recycling trade.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi met with key ministers in a bid to find a solution, with a government spokesperson saying the situuation would be confronted 'radically' with 24 hours.
Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio promised that the government would intervene immediately, with the help of the army if necessary.
A plan to reopen the Pianura dump, which was closed in 1994 because of public health concerns, was met with widespread protests.
Police retreated from the dump yesterday evening, prompting jubilant cries of victory from the protestors, but tension returned on reports that authorities would go ahead with the plan to reopen the dump.
Pianura could take tens of thousands of tonnes of waste, only a fraction of the some 110,000 tonnes of rubbish that has remained uncollected in Campania since late last month.
