Protesters set fire to bins and clashed with police in Naples on Friday as a curfew was imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Violence erupted in the Italian city as hundreds of demonstrators, many wearing face masks, took to the streets to object to the tougher restrictions being imposed.
Police cars were attacked with baseball bats while missiles were thrown at officers who used tear gas in response as tensions boiled over, according to local reports.
Videos show scenes of chaos as crowds of people march through the city chanting as smoke fills the air.
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Coronavirus cases in Italy have risen seven-fold since the start of the month, raising fears that the pandemic is spiralling out of control.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said he wants to avoid a new national lockdown that would wreck the already fragile economy, but Italian law gives regional leaders powers to establish their own curbs.
Several regions are taking matters into their own hands, with Campania, which includes Naples, imposing an 11pm night time curfew on hospitality venues.
Its president Vincenzo De Luca said on Friday that he was considering going further by imposing a total lockdown.
He wrote on Faceook: ‘Current data on the contagion make any kind of partial measure ineffective. We have to close everything, except for those businesses that produce and transport essential goods.
‘We need to make one last effort to get things under control. We need to shut everything down for a month, for 40 days.’
De Luca did not when the shutdown would begin.
The announcement comes as a blow to people worried about their livelihoods if a second lockdown is imposed.
Protesters held a banner addressing De Luca which read: ‘You close us, you pay us.’
Many were chanting ‘freedom, freedom, freedom’ during their procession.
Commenting on the protests, Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris told Italian TV channel RaiTre: ‘For us this is a day of bitterness.
‘Via Santa Lucia is a street full of culture. Seeing the violence, the tear gas, is a defeat.
‘Violence must always be condemned.’
Cases are also soaring in Lombardy, the epicentre of Italy’s initial outbreak in March.
The governor of the region said on Friday that it faced a ‘dramatic situation’ and urged locals to respect a curfew that runs from 11pm to 5am amongst other measures.
Lombardy, which includes the financial capital Milan, remains the hardest hit region, accounting for 4,916 of the new cases on Friday. Campania was the second-worst hit, with 2,280.
Rome also started a curfew on Friday after Lazio governor Nicola Zingaretti imposed a 30-day order.
Underscoring the growing concern, a group of prominent scientists and researchers urged the government to take immediate, forceful action at a national level.
They warned that hundreds might die each day without a tougher strategy.
‘The longer you wait, the measures you eventually take will have to be tougher, last longer and thus inflict a greater economic impact,’ the 100 academics wrote in an open letter to Conte.
Some new nationwide rules have already been brought in, including a ban on amateur contact sports and school trips and restricting bars and restaurants to table service after 6pm.
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