Police fire on EU protesters

Scenes of violence in Gothenburg on Friday

GOTHENBURG, Sweden (CNN) -- Police Friday confirmed officers had opened fire on protesters after a police officer had been badly injured in the head from an object thrown by anti-globalization demonstrators.

The incident came at the end of the first day of the European Union summit, which was marred by sometimes violent protests by activist groups.

Police have made more than 100 arrests and 30 people were injured as police skirmished with protesting groups in an effort to keep them away from the convention center where 15 EU leaders were meeting.

At times the protesters were less than a kilometer from the site of the summit, but other than forcing the cancellation of a dinner in a posh Gothenburg site, the summit has been largely unaffected by the violence and the protests.

As many as 12,000 protesters have staged demonstrations throughout the streets of this port city, while as many as 2,000 extra police have been brought in for the two-day summit and for the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush, who was in town Thursday to meet with the European leaders prior to the summit.

Hundreds of anti-EU rioters, some wearing black hoods, smashed car windows, hurled rocks and built flaming barricades as violent demonstrations overtook the port city for the second day running.

Up to 25,000 anti-capitalist activists descended on Sweden's second largest city, ahead of the EU summit which began on Thursday, far outnumbering the estimated 1,000 police deployed to thwart them.

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Streets were reported to be littered with glass and paving stones were ripped up and used as missiles by the protesters, said to be incensed at the tough action police had taken on Thursday when they detained over 240 protesters.

The clashes overwhelmed police, who were forced to cede control of entire streets including the city's main thoroughfare, lined with shops and restaurants, to protesters.

There were reports of police being knocked off their mounts and dragged away by protesters and of riderless horses galloping down the paved lanes of the port city.

A clutch of demonstrators scaled a section of double-steel fence outside the conference building itself and sat down in protest as police watched and helicopters buzzed overhead, Reuters reported.

On the fashionable Avenue, protesters lit a massive bonfore of rubbish and debris, Reuters reported, sending a giant plume of smoke billowing above the port.

As the rioters sparred with police on the streets outside, inside the conference centre, Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern appealed for more time for his country to refelect on its vote in a referendum last week rejecting Europe's eastward expansion.

Ahern said that while his country remained committed to further European expansion, it was too early to say when he would be able to put the issue before his compatriots again for a second vote, the Associated Press reported.

"We genuinely need … an extended period of reflection, Ahern said."

Earlier on Friday, President Bush left Gothenburg as police erected a tight cordon bewteen the protesters and those attending the summit.

On Thursday, clashes broke out when protesters confronted police who had sealed off a school on suspicions that violence-inclined demonstrators were using it as a refuge. On Friday, streets around the school were strewn with glass shards, torn-up railings and cobbles, AP reported.