A police officer is rushed to hospital in Paraguay following riots on Friday that left 16 dead.

He was injured when police tried to evict hundreds of peasants from a farm near the city of Curuguaty.

The country's interior minister said the farmers shot at officers when they arrived at the privately-owned acreage.

At least seven officers and nine peasants died in the fighting.

The army was called in to halt the clashes, some of the worst land-related violence Paraguay has seen in two decades.

Those conflicts have increased in recent years with critics saying small-time farmers are being unfairly forced off land to make way for large-scale agriculture.

Andrew Raven, Reuters

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