Firefighters in garbage-strewn Naples tackled dozens of blazing mounds of rubbish on Friday that had been set alight overnight by exasperated residents, officials said.

The waste crisis in the southern Italian city has escalated in recent days with the build-up of more than 2,300 tons of malodorous rubbish in the streets and armed guards brought in to escort garbage trucks as tensions rise.

Naples' mayor Luigi de Magistris has warned that organised crime rings are fomenting the waste crisis and said it is putting residents at risk.

"Various groups want Naples to remain buried under garbage ... for political reasons or because of illegal interests," he said in an interview with the Repubblica daily on Friday.

"A working waste disposal system would create jobs and help the economy, something that some people do not want," he said.

Naples is the stronghold of the Camorra -- a powerful international crime syndicate with a wide range of activities including drug trafficking, as well as major interests in construction, import-export and waste disposal.

De Magistris said Thursday the Camorra was against him because he wanted an "environmental revolution" that would enforce legislation on recycling garbage and therefore take a chunk of traditional revenues away from the Camorra.

The newly elected leftist mayor of the southern Italian city also accused Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his government of failing to help.

"Berlusconi has shown with his actions that he doesn't give a damn about Naples. He has washed his hands of it like Pontius Pilate," he said.

De Magistris won a local election last month against a candidate from Berlusconi's ruling People of Freedom party, which also lost control of Milan.

The government last month mobilised the army to help clear garbage from city streets, where angry local residents forced to walk around wearing masks or covering their mouths began setting fires to the accumulating black bags.

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