Race riots exploded in the southern Italian town of Castelvolturno near Naples yesterday after six African immigrants were shot dead at a tailor’s shop in an attack by gangsters from the the Naples Mafia.

Police said that the violence was related to a drugs turf war among the Camorra, the Naples Mafia, in which African immigrants appeared to be involved. But the rioters, who smashed windows and turned over cars, accused the police and mafiosi of racism for assuming that immigrants were drugs dealers. At least six gunmen fired Kalashnikovs and small arms during the attack.

Young men with crowbars forced motorists out of their vehicles while African women screamed. “We want justice. It’s not true that our murdered friends sold drugs or were mobsters,” one protester said. The six dead, all in their late twenties, were from Ghana, Togo and Liberia.

Sando De Franciscis, head of the Caserta region, said: “The arrogance of the Camorra has reached intolerable levels.” Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the Archbishop of Naples, said: “As long as these killers are not defeated we will always have cemeteries filled by hate and violence.” Police said that 130 bullets had been fired from a car and several motor scooters. Mafiosi gunmen also mowed down the owner of a games arcade in Castelvolturno, firing 60 bullets into his head and abdomen 20 minutes before the attack on the Africans.

Investigators said both incidents were related to a feud over drugs.

Police said that the violence sprang from a crackdown by the Casalesi clan, a Camorra faction linked to the drugs trade, on dealers who had moved into the clan’s territory “without authorisation”.

Times Recommends

• Zardari still has to tackle tough questions
• Material evidence 'debunks' Turin Shroud
• BBC criticised over Uganda gay execution poll