SALONIKA, June 21: Anti-EU demonstrations turned ugly on Saturday as riot police fired teargas on a mob of anarchists who threw firebombs and attacked shops in the Greek port city of Salonika.

Police, out in force for a mass march underway to coincide with the final day of an EU summit in a nearby Aegean resort, fired several gas grenades to break up the mobs, sending clouds of white smoke into the streets.

Salonika, the scene of most demonstrations agains the summit, had been bracing for trouble with shopkeepers barricading their stores with metal sheets and bars to protect them from possible attack.

About 30 shop windows were smashed and half a dozen cars damaged by fire in the violence, which flared as about 40,000 communists and anti-globalisation demonstrators descended on the city for the climax of anti-EU protests, according to police estimates.

A senior police officer had warned earlier Saturday that “the slightest incident will be met with a strong reaction” with a force of about 7,000 on the streets of Salonika, Greece’s second largest city.

Some witnesses accused police of being heavy handed against the demonstrators, beating several of the troublemakers and dragging them away by their hair as they were arrested and handcuffed.

There were no reports of injuries although a photographer covering the demonstrations said he was kicked by police and hit with batons.

An ambulance worker in one of a number of mobile ambulances stationed around the city said that more than 50 people had been treated for teargas inhalation in his vehicle alone.

Police said 50 demonstrators had been arrested, many of them carrying Molotov cocktails and iron bars, while local officials said the damage could run into millions of euros.

Police said one group of rioters also broke into a local branch of fast food chain McDonald’s despite protective metal shutters, while many retreated to Salonika’s university campus which is off-limits to security forces.

The demonstrators, including communists, other left-wing groups and anti-globalisation activists, marched through the city with banners reading “Smash the capitalist EU,” chanting “Americans out.”

Demonstrations against the summit, held at Porto Carras, about 150 kilometres from Salonika, have been largely peaceful but sporadic violence also occurred Friday when anarchists tried to storm the tight security cordon protecting the EU leaders.

Riot police fired tear gas against a group of about 50 people, some hooded, who hurled stones against security forces at a barricade near the summit site at Porto Carras, but there were no reports of injuries or arrests.

Greek authorities mounted an unprecedented land, air and sea operation with a 15,000-strong security force, tooug combat protests and the threat of terrorism during the three-day summit, which wrapped up Saturday with a meeting between leaders from EU countries and Balkan states.

It was the first serious test of Greece’s security apparatus ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

“If there are incidents, they will be staged just by a few individuals,” said Kyriaki Klokiti, spokeswoman of the Greek Social Forum, one of the main groups marching in Salonika, before the violence erupted.

Police had said they would not block off any part of the town to demonstrators. “It’s an open city,” the police source said, although adding that “strategic sites,” such as the US consulate, were receiving extra protection. —AFP