Four people were arrested and 56 people, including the local mayor, were injured when police clashed with protesters trying to stop the construction of a incinerator near Naples, police said on Monday.
Between 10,000 and 20,000 people marched to the site on Sunday where the incinerator is being built. Scuffles broke out late in the day and police used tear gas to break up the rally.
Despite a chronic problem in dealing with domestic refuse, the people of the town of Acerra, just outside the southern Italian port town, oppose the plant as they fear its emissions will pose a health risk.
The incinerator, which will also generate electricity, has pitted the town's Communist Mayor Espedito Marletta who wants to halt the construction, against the centre-left regional government of Campania, which insists it is desperately needed.
Marletta, who was leading the march, was among the 15 protesters and 41 policemen that the police said were injured.
In June local people lay down on railway tracks, blocking train traffic for four days, to protest against a nearby rubbish dump.
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