MILAN (AFP) — An Italian porn actress stripped off in the Milan stock exchange on Tuesday in a protest at financiers she accused of mismanaging the country’s savings, the market operator said.

The actress, Laura Perego, walked into the stock market in a black coat which she took off to reveal her body painted in the colours of the Italian flag, naked apart for some tiny underwear.

“I want to send a message to all those who mismanaged our savings,” shouted the 22-year-old Sicilian, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency, as several traders tried in vain to make her put her clothes back on.

She accused the bemused financiers of “stripping Italians of everything but their underwear.”

She was held in a police station for over an hour before emerging to tell reporters that “several officers complimented me and told me I was fighting for a just cause,” ANSA said.