Race riots in Italy, 37 injured

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ROSARNO, Italy, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Clashes between immigrants and locals in a southern Italian town entered a second day on Friday, with the government rushing extra police to try to stem one of the worst episodes of racial unrest in years.

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Some 8,000 illegal immigrants work in the southern Calabria region where the clashes have erupted, most as day labourers picking fruit and vegetables. Many live in abandoned factories with no running water or electricity and human rights groups say they are exploited by organised crime.

The clashes started on Thursday, when a gang of white youths in a car fired air rifles at a group of African immigrants returning from work on farms, injuring two of them.

The attack set off a night of rioting by dozens of Africans, who smashed car windows with steel bars and stones and set cars and rubbish bins on fire.

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On Friday, the violence continued. Police said two immigrants were shot at with air rifles and suffered leg wounds, while two others were attacked with iron bars and were said to be in serious condition.

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Police said that in two separate incidents locals had tried to run over immigrants with their cars. Schools and many shops were closed.

Hundreds of local residents gathered outside the town hall on Friday evening, many of them asking that the government intervene against the immigrants.

"They are the ones who should be afraid now, they should go away," one resident told Sky Italia television.

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