'Black Bloc' anarchists to hijack summit protests using shields and truncheons

ANARCHISTS planning to hijack peaceful protests against the G20 summit in London are being led by a middle-class, university drop-out.

Alessio Lunghi, 30, who grew up in south London, is understood to be planning a "Black Bloc" to hijack G20 protests. The tactic is used to make it difficult for police to break up groups.

Black Bloc protesters - in black clothing, motorcycle helmets, steel-toed boots and often carrying shields and truncheons - create tight, hard-to-break blocks which can smash through police lines.

Police fear demonstrations could become violent. Mr Lunghi wrote in an email to activists last week: "We are their crisis. Reclaim the struggle for a global community fit for all, not the undeserving rich elite who are happy to see our lives ruined.

"As the bankers continue to cream off billions of pounds of our money let's put the call out, RECLAIM THE MONEY, storm the banks and send them packing."

Mr Lunghi is believed to be at the centre of plans to hijack a 50,000-strong anti-globalisation protest on 28 March in the City and again on 1 April. There is no suggestion he has ever been involved in violent acts but in 2005, before the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Mr Lunghi was asked at a protest planning meeting whether violence was likely. He is said to have replied: "I would hope so. There's no point going otherwise."

In 2003, Mr Lunghi, the son of an Italian wine importer, was one of the masterminds of that year's May Day protests which brought the centre of the capital to a standstill. A veteran of two other May Day riots and clashes in Prague and Genoa, he rose to the top of protest group the Wombles (White Overall Movement Building Liberation through Effective Struggle).

A security source said: "The idea that hardened anarchists are planning a sub-protest could pose a serious threat to public order."