[REUTERS] GOTEBORG, Sweden, June 15 -- Anti-capitalist riots dubbed the "Battle of Goteborg" went on unabated into Friday night near an EU summit, with charging protesters forcing heavily outnumbered police to abandon their vehicles.
The center of the picturesque 17th century Swedish port was a near war-zone strewn with rocks, burning barricades and smashed shops after nearly 12 hours of non-stop violence.
The Swedish news agency TT said one embattled policeman fired shots in self-defense to protect himself when he came under "lethal attack."
Reuters correspondents on a street outside Goteborg University's main building, about one mile from the summit location, said about 1,500 protesters were involved.
Hurling rocks and fire crackers, demonstrators forced back police outnumbered about 10 to one.
Police abandoned seven of their vans in a side street near the university after the location was overrun and badly damaged by the protestors, most wearing masks and black hooded coats to prevent identification.
Earlier Friday, rioters smashed and looted shops in Gothenburg's main central district, and set a huge bonfire ablaze in the area's main avenue. The violence forced EU leaders to cancel a dinner in the city center and remain at the conference site.
Five EU delegations staying at hotels in the fashionable area were moved to safer locations.
Around 1,000 anti-capitalist demonstrators, incensed by tough police action to protect the leaders who met President Bush Thursday, briefly had complete control of the central plaza.
Regular Part Of Meetings
Vandalism and pitched street battles have become a regular part of major international meetings in recent years in venues from Seattle to Prague and Nice -- and now to the normally peaceful southwestern Swedish coast.
Political leaders expressed concern about the rising trend of violent protest.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he now feared for next month's meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Italy's coastal town of Genoa.
One of Goteborg's main theaters was also attacked.
Rioters stoned police and pulled mounted policemen off their horses, forcing the terrified animals to gallop riderless back into police lines, skidding on the cobbled streets.
"Two to three hundred people came down the avenue like a virus and started throwing stones at everything," said Al Belherg, who works at the Niva bar which had its windows smashed.
Maximilian Backma, 17, a chef at the Niva cafe, told Reuters: "It was totally unreal. This sort of thing shouldn't happen in Gothenburg."
Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, hosting the summit, said it was "tragic" the rioting had drawn attention away from the summit debate on enlargement and the future of the Union.
"Those who are destroying this type of democratic dialogue want us to withdraw, hide, go away," he told a news conference.
Vowing to "stand up and fight," he said: "They have no right to decide how we should conduct the democratic dialogue in the future."
"Paradox"
Danish Premier Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said it was a "paradox" to see young people rioting against a meeting "where we are working toward a better world, better environment and better future for coming generations."
Britain's Tony Blair said the rioters were "misguided" and argued that world trade was good for jobs and living standards.
"What poorest countries need is more trade and access to the richest countries' markets, not destruction of world trade.
"The protesters are entitled to protest, but are not entitled to engage in this kind of thuggery," Blair said.
Police spokesman Bengt Staaf said 34 people, including nine policemen had been hurt in two days of clashes. Two were in hospital,
"It was terrifying what happened," Staaf said. "These were not demonstrators -- these were criminal cowards."
A spokesman for Goteborg Action 2001, a coalition of groups whose members earlier staged peaceful demonstrations, said the clashes were "a disaster."
"It's just the kind of activities we were trying to avoid," said Orjan Bergstern. He said police tactics had raised tension.
Thursday, during Bush's visit, police held 455 people, later released, and said they would press charges of riotous behavior against 43 of them. Trouble arose Thursday after police sealed off a school with hundreds of activists inside.
Up to 25,000 activists from dozens of anti-EU, anti-U.S. and anti-globalization groups have descended on Goteborg.
The protesters waved flags with images of revolutionary heroes Marx, Lenin and Mao and banners with slogans such as "Smash Global Capitalism."
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[posted 6/15/01]
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