ROME: A senior Italian police officer was injured in violent clashes with demonstrators protesting against a planned high speed rail link between France and northern Italy, officials said on Sunday.

The head of a police special operations unit in Turin, Giuseppe Petronzi, was hurt by an improvised explosive device during the confrontation on Saturday night in Val di Susa in the far north of Italy, when police fired teargas at supporters of “No-Tav”, the anti high-speed rail movement.

“What happened last night in Val di Susa was not a demonstration of dissent, it was violence,” Interior Minister Annamaria Cancellieri said in a statement.

The authorities would ensure that construction work could go ahead, she added, pledging “maximum toughness” against violent demonstrations.—Reuters