Riot police clashed with hundreds of Tunisian immigrants yesterday injuring dozens during a protest against conditions at a reception centre on the tiny island of Lampedusa, Italian media said.

Police with shields and batons herded the immigrants into the corner of a raised terrace and beat them, forcing many to drop four metres into a courtyard to escape the blows, according to images published by SKY TG 24 television.

Three officers and a dozen protesters were hurt, Ansa news agency reported.

Angry Lampedusa residents surrounded the town hall, calling on mayor Bernardino De Rubeis to take a stronger line against the migrants.

“I have to defend myself and am ready to use it,” Mr De Rubeis said, showing journalists a baseball bat stashed in the desk drawer in his office.

“It’s like a war zone,” he added, calling on the state to “immediately send helicopters and ships to evacuate the Tunisians.”

Tension has been growing on the southern Italian island over the past few days, with more than 1,000 Tunisian migrants who face repatriation under an agreement with Tunis clamouring to be taken to the mainland.

“Lampedusa must be emptied immediately. We cannot let this pearl of the Mediterranean become a land abandoned to guerrilla warfare and terrorism,” Sicily’s governor Raffaele Lombardo said.

The UN refugee agency and several charities expressed their disappointment in the Italian government’s handling of the situation after protests at the island’s crowded reception centre climaxed on Tuesday with a devastating fire.

The tension continued un-abated yesterday morning, as 300 immigrants marched through the streets of Lampedusa, crying out “Freedom! Freedom!”

According to official figures released by the government yesterday, over 50,400 immigrants – 45,090 men, 2,608 women and 2,705 minors – have arrived on Lampedusa since the start of the year.

It is not the first time that the reception centre has been the scene of immigrant protests over cramped conditions or lengthy waiting times to be transferred to other reception centres on the mainland.