The boys targeted an emergency ward in the city centre to demand their friend be collected for urgent treatment.

The incident on Sunday was reported on a Facebook page established by doctors to highlight violence against staff.

It is not clear if the teenagers had initially tried to call an ambulance.

"A group of boys entered the emergency room and took the crew by force... to board the ambulance," the Facebook post by the group Nobody Touches Hippocrates reads.

"The vehicle arrived at the location and was immediately surrounded by a group of angry bystanders.

"Fearing the worst, the [doctors] made their way through the crowd and, to their surprise, found a 16-year-old boy with a knee sprain."

According to the Facebook report (in Italian), the ambulance staff explained to those at the scene that the boy's injury was not serious, but were then threatened again for refusing to transport him to hospital.

The incident, which occurred at the Loreto Mare Hospital on Sunday afternoon, was resolved after the boy received on-the-spot treatment.

On Monday, the founder and president of Nobody Touches Hippocrates, Manuel Ruggiero, suggested increasing security at some of Italy's hospitals.

"Where it is not possible to have police in the emergency room, army units could be useful to stem the growing violence against health personnel," he told Italy's Ansa news agency.