A peaceful demonstration in Milan on Saturday, near the Olympic Village in northern Italy, has ended in clashes with police.

Earlier on Saturday, upwards of 10,000 people marched towards the Olympic Village, but later on, once the larger peaceful group of protesters had left, a smaller group had violent confrontations with police.

Flares and stones were thrown at police, who dispersed protesters with batons, water cannons and tear gas following the otherwise peaceful march.

Why are people protesting at the Olympics?

Protesters took to the streets over the environmental impact of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, which got underway on Friday.

"Let's take back the cities and free the mountains,” one banner by a group calling itself the Unsustainable Olympic Committee read.

At the larger, peaceful demonstration — which police said had 10,000 demonstrators — people carried cardboard cutouts representing the trees cut down to build the new bobsled run in Cortina.

The protests took place amid US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milan as head of the US delegation. Vance attended the opening ceremony to many boos and some applause on Friday.

Protesters  unhappy with presence of US ICE officers

The protest was also directed partly at the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency officers at the games.

ICE officers have been tasked with protecting officials, including Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Italy has deployed around 6,000 security personnel across Olympic sites for the duration of the Games.

Edited by: Sean Sinico