The motorway from Turin to Modane was completely blocked from Bussoleno, a town about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Turin, an AFP correspondent reported.

At the railroad station in Avigliana, about 100 demonstrators occupied the platforms and disrupted the Turin-Modane train schedule.

About a dozen businesses in the Val di Susa region also declared a strike so their employees could show their solidarity with the protesters.

Earlier Tuesday paramilitary Carabinieri intervened in Venaus, 60 kilometers from Turin, to remove the protesters from the site where geological probes were to be carried out for the TGV line, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

About a dozen protesters suffered minor injuries, officials told ANSA.

Scuffles broke out elsewhere between police and other opponents of the railway line after the protestors had been removed.

"The inhabitants of the Val di Susa are completely revolted at what happened last night. It was violent, there are people in hospital," said Wanda Bonardo, local leader of environmental group Legambiente.

"As a sign of protest, the valley has been completely cut off from the world. Roads, motorways and railways are blocked and businesses have closed their doors as a sign of solidarity," Bonardo added.

The site was chosen to cut a 53-kilometer cross-border train tunnel into France, arousing the anger of people living in the region who question the usefulness, cost and environmental consequences of the project.

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