The protest was about the case of Ramy Elgaml, a 19-year-old Italo-Egyptian who died on November 24 in a scooter accident in Milan while being chased by the Carabinieri police.

Eight police officers were injured in Saturday’s violence in the capital.

The suspects investigators have identified are close to anarchist circles and left-wing student collectives, sources said.

Other demonstrations were organised in cities including Milan, Bologna and Brescia by the Italian Antiracist Coordination who demanded “Justice and Truth” regarding Ramy’s death.

In Bologna, the local synagogue was vandalised in the night between Saturday and Sunday, along with other areas of the city centre following a march.

On Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the protests.

“Amid paper bombs, tear gas and assaults, last night in Rome we saw the umpteenth, ignoble episode of disorder and chaos by the usual rioters who took to the streets not to demonstrate for a cause, but purely in a spirit of revenge,” the prime minister wrote on social media.

“It’s not possible to use a tragedy to legitimise violence.

“Our solidarity goes to the police, together with well wishes to the officers who were wounded.

“We are on your side,” wrote Meloni.

The protests took place amid a probe into whether Carabinieri security officials chasing the scooter carrying Ramy and Fares Bouzidi, a 22-year-old Tunisian who was riding the bike, intentionally rammed into it.

The accident occurred at the end of an eight-km-long chase that ended at the Corvetto district, which officers said started after the pair drove through a roadblock.

The officer behind the wheel of the car directly following the scooter and Bouzidi are being probed on involuntary road murder charges while the other Carabinieri officials involved in the chase are being investigated over potentially false claims regarding the accident and for allegedly erasing a witness’s video.

ANSA