A strong anti-immigrant mood marked the funeral Wednesday of a young Italian woman who died last week after being hit in the eye by a Romanian prostitute's umbrella.
"They don't pay (taxes), they carry on as if they own the place and the State defends them," shouted one woman, to loud applause, at the arriving cars of regional government officials.
"Foreign prostitutes all over the place, it's a disgrace. We want Rome back like it was 20 years ago," shouted another woman.
There was a vocal protest inside the church when the parish priest read a telegram urging forgiveness for those who "committed such an absurd crime".
"Never, never," came the response from many parts of the congregation.
The church in a working-class Rome suburb was smothered with wreaths remembering Vanessa Russo, 23.
"Goodbye my heart, thank you for me and you...thanks for us. Yours always, Federico," read the one from her boyfriend.
Last week's incident on the Rome subway involving Russo and two Romanian prostitutes has rekindled widespread anger linked to immigrant crime.
Right-wing opposition lawmakers called for tighter immigration controls after the pair, aged 21 and 17, were arrested on Sunday.
The elder woman, named as mother-of-two Doina Matei, is accused of stabbing Russo with her umbrella during a row last Thursday at Rome's main Termini station.
The umbrella tip went through Russo's eye and severed a brain artery. She died in hospital a day later.
Matei says Russo's death was an accident.
She said she argued with Russo while getting off the train and that the Italian slapped her. She then held up her umbrella in self-defence and it caught Russo in the eye.
But Matei's version did not square with eyewitness accounts - who did not remember Matei being slapped - or forensic evidence indicating the umbrella had been powerfully thrust into Russo's eye.
The younger prostitute was on the police's books for not obeying an order to leave Italy.
