Dozens of people have been injured on Easter Island after riot police evicting islanders from their ancestral home were faced with stone-throwing protesters.
The clash began early on Friday when police moved to evict 10 people from the home they had been occupying since ousting a government official from the property, the Associated Press reported Maka Atan, a Rapa Nui lawyer, as saying.
Rapa Nui is the official native name for Easter Island, famous for its gigantic stone figures known as Moais, and many natives use the term to identify themselves.
The islanders resisted the police's eviction attempts and the violence left 17 officers and eight civilians hurt, according to police.
Protesters said that 19 islanders were injured and denied seeing any police hurt.
Islanders said the police of used batons and pellet guns against the crowd.