The Italian government is under fire after a black athlete was injured in the latest of almost a dozen suspected racist attacks since the anti-migrant administration came to power.

Daisy Osakue - born in Italy to Nigerian immigrant parents - is in a race against time to be fit for the European Athletics Championships next week after an egg thrown at her from a car on the outskirts of Turin on Monday damaged her eye.

The 22-year-old holds Italian citizenship and had been hoping to represent her birth country as a discus thrower at the event in Berlin next month.

Emerging from a clinic with a bandage over her left eye, Ms Osakue - who trains and studies in the US - said she thought she was mistaken for an African prostitute, who often work in the area where she was targeted.

In an interview with Italian news agency ANSA, she suggested growing right-wing rhetoric in the country had contributed to increased hostility against migrants.


Image: Osakue is hoping to be ready for the European Athletics Championships

"They have very strong power of influence on mass media," she said.

"So if they say 'it's their (the migrants') fault, they steal our jobs, they come here and they destroy everything, obviously people will start thinking that they are right.

"I'm sorry to say it, but I think we're dealing with racism."

The government has been led by Giuseppe Conte since 1 June, who was appointed prime minister after an inconclusive election on 4 March led to a hung parliament.

He emerged as a compromise candidate of the two largest parties after the vote - the populist 5-Star Movement led by Luigi Di Maio and the right-wing League headed by Matteo Salvini.

Image: Giuseppe Conte has been prime minister for two months

Asylum-seekers, legal immigrants and others who are not ethnic Italians are among the people who have been attacked since then, including a 13-month-old girl who was shot by an air gun while in her mother's arms in Rome.

Earlier this month, a Cape Verde man with a residency permit was shot in the back while working on scaffolding to set up decorative lighting for a town celebration in the Veneto region, which is a League stronghold.

Just a few days before, near Naples, two youths allegedly shot a cook from Mali who has lived in Italy for four years.

Last week, a young man from Senegal was kicked and punched by three Italians at a cafe where he worked in Sicily.

Image: Matteo Salvini continues to do well in the polls

Former prime minister Matteo Renzi tweeted to describe the spate of attacks as "an emergency".

Opposition leader Maurizio Martina, who heads the centre-left Democratic Party, has called on Mr Salvini and his allies to denounce the "racist spiral" of violence - or they would be known as "accomplices".

Mr Salvini has led a crackdown on illegal immigration since the coalition came to power, including closing off ports to refugee and migrant boats and urging officials to enforce tougher rules on those seeking asylum.

He has wished Ms Osakue a speedy recovery, but dismissed concerns of a "racism emergency" as "nonsense".