LONDON, Oct 16: Hundreds camped out in London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam on Sunday, after clashes in New York and Rome during protests some see as the start of a new global movement against corporate greed and budget cuts.

Organisers said 250 people spent the night outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London’s financial district where a camp of 70 tents had sprung up.

Some 200 people also camped in front of the European Central Bank building in Frankfurt, while in Amsterdam 50 tents were put up outside the stock exchange.

There were rallies in 951 cities in 80 countries around the globe on Saturday, building on a campaign launched on May 15 with a rally in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square by a group calling itself “Indignados” (“Indignants”).

The rallies passed off mostly peacefully but in Rome a few hundred among tens of thousands of protesters set cars alight, smashed up banks and hurled rocks at riot police, who responded by firing tear gas and water cannon jets.

Of the 135 injured, 105 were police officers and two protesters injured by exploding smoke bombs had fingers amputated.

Police arrested 12 people.

There were also clashes in New York where the “Occupy Wall Street” movement has gained pace. Police made 88 arrests there. Early on Sunday, Chicago police arrested 175 protesters as they cleared a protest camp in the city’s Grant Park.

“The Indignados movement rises again with global force,” Spain’s El Pais daily said. “This is the first time a grassroots initiative organises so many rallies in so many different and distant places in a coordinated way,” it said.

In Italy, La Stampa said: “The world takes to the streets: united, peaceful and colourful.”

Tens of thousands turned out at the biggest rallies in Lisbon, Madrid and Rome. There were thousands too in Washington and New York.

“I think it is very moving that the movement that was born here has extended throughout the world,” 24-year-old Carmen Martin said as she marched in Madrid.

“It was about time people rise up,” she added.

In London, scuffles broke out after a few thousand people gathered in the financial district near St Paul’s Cathedral, raising banners saying: “Strike back!”, “No cuts!” and “Goldman Sachs is the work of the devil!”

The founder of the WikiLeaks whistleblower website Julian Assange told protesters from the steps of St Paul’s he supported them “because the banking system in London is the recipient of corrupt money”.—AFP