Police in Italy have foiled a plot by extremists to form a new Nazi party, seizing a hoard of weapons that included sniper rifles and swords.

Images released by investigators showed a cache of guns, body armour, knives and even a Wolverine-style claw weapon taken from raids up and down the country.

Officers in 16 towns and cities – from Sicily to the Alps – were involved in the two-year probe, which also found that the extremist group had links with like-minded people in the UK.

On Thursday police revealed they had disrupted a “huge and varied array of subjects, residents in different places, united by the same ideological fanaticism and willing to create an openly pro-Nazi, xenophobic and antisemitic movement”.

Investigators did not say how many people joined the group or how many were arrested.

Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Show all 9 1 /9 Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Part of the material seized from a neo-Nazi group in a national police operation in Padua EPA Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Flags and other paraphernalia confiscated from neo-Nazis EPA Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Rifles and books discovered by police EPA Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Pistols and other weapons found by officers via REUTERS Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Further weapons found in the cache via REUTERS Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Kinves, a sword and other weapons seized in searches of properties of an extreme-right group who planned to create a new Nazi party via REUTERS Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Books seized in searches of properties of an extreme-right group via REUTERS Italian police break up new underground Nazi party Weapons and a Nazi flag with a swastika seized by police via REUTERS Italian police break up new underground Nazi party A sticker with the symbol of the 'Italian National Socialist Workers' Party' via REUTERS

“Defence of fascism” and efforts to revive fascist parties are criminal offences in Italy.

The new party was called the Italian National Socialist Party of Workers and police showed off a range of Nazi paraphernalia, including swastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler, seized during searches of 19 properties.

They also found a large number of weapons, including pistols, hunting rifles and crossbows.

The group had forged links with extremist groups abroad, including in Portugal, Britain and France, police said.

In July police found a huge stash of weapons including an air-to-air missile that they linked to far-right extremists while, in November, two men connected to another group of Nazi sympathisers were arrested on suspicion of planning to attack a mosque.