Rioters in Italy stormed the iconic Colosseum in Rome, forcing panicked tourists to flee the mayhem.

The demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, protesting the war in Gaza and the Italian government, following similar demonstrations across Italy in cities such as Rome, Milan, and Turin protesting the cost of living and the conflict between Israel and Hamas, though the connection between the two issues remains unclear.

The protest is the latest in a string of riots that overwhelmed France and spread to Spain and Italy, beginning ostensibly with high school students’ discontent with poor conditions at school, such as leaky pipes and rat infestations, and then taking on a life of their own as huge numbers of young men were swept up in the fervor. Many took advantage of the chaos to set fires in the streets and loot stores. As one social media user wryly noted, “And then suddenly it dawned on us. Palestine would not be free until every student had a Louis Vuitton handbag.”

The site of the Colosseum had seen tourists running wild and clashing with police over the past month, leading security forces to label it a red zone and increase security around the historic site.

The Roman Colosseum, the largest standing amphitheater in the world, lies in the center of Rome. The stone theater was built between 72 and 80 CE, by Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus, just a few years after they had conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple.

The massive theater, featuring four stories of arches and columns and a complex underground network of tunnels called the hypogeum, could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators.