Belgian police fired water cannon in central Brussels on Friday to drive back protesters inspired by France’s “yellow vest” movement who hurled rocks and firecrackers near the prime minister’s office.

Police made dozens of arrests and protesters destroyed at least two police vans as what started as a peaceful but unauthorised demonstration, lacking clear leadership and largely promoted on social media, descended into violence when people, many masked or hooded, tried to breach police lines.

For three hours, crowds complaining about fuel prices and a squeeze on living standards had disrupted traffic and walked the streets. Police said they had arrested about 60 people before the violence, mostly for blocking roads or carrying large fireworks.

Several hundred people wearing the fluorescent safety vests drivers must carry in their vehicles eventually converged on the office of prime minister Charles Michel. Some threw rocks, firecrackers and road signs towards police who doused them with high-pressure water jets and fired gas rounds.

Police spray tear gas during clashes with protesters in Belgium. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

The disturbances lasted over an hour before riot police surrounded and then arrested some demonstrators while the rest of the crowd dispersed. Police put the total number of protesters at about 500.

Michel tweeted: “No impunity for unacceptable violence in Brussels. Those who came to smash and loot must be punished.”

Protests in Belgium, notably around fuel depots in the French-speaking south, have been inspired by the yellow vest – or “gilet jaune” – actions in France against increases in fuel duty imposed by President Emmanuel Macron’s government as part of efforts to reduce emissions causing global warming. Those protests have snowballed into wider demonstrations across France over economic hardship.

France’s minister for overseas territories, Annick Girardin, was forced to cut short a meeting with fuel tax demonstrators on the French island of Réunion on Friday after being booed by protesters shouting “Macron, resign!” The Indian Ocean island of around 800,000 people has been brought to a standstill by demonstrations against the fuel duty increases.

In Brussels people chanted “Michel, resign!” on Friday. Michel, a liberal ally of Macron, voiced sympathy for people’s troubles on Thursday, but added: “Money doesn’t fall from the sky.”

His centre-right coalition faces an election in May.