ANTI-riot cops fired shots into the air to break up a huge bar brawl between British holidaymakers at a festival in the Algarve.

Around 50 officers were sent to disperse crowds in Albufeira during the seven-day Portugal Invasion festival.

6 Thousands of holidaymakers descended on the festival in Albufeira, Portugal Credit: Twitter

6 Police used batons to break up the violence Credit: Facebook

6 The bar brawl broke out as thousands descended for the festival Credit: Facebook

Shots were fired into the air and festival-goers reportedly hit with batons before cops arrested four people during the clash last night in the popular tourist destination.

Two police officers and two Brits were injured in the violence, which happened during a seven-day festival called Portugal Invasion which is due to end tomorrow.

Brit holidaymakers caught up in the violence accused the police of overreacting, although local business owners said some of the estimated 1,000 tourists believed to have travelled to Portugal for the festival had acted disgracefully during their stay in the resort.

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Joao Ramos, who posted a video on his Facebook page showing the chaos and the shots being fired, said: "I've seen second division football games with more police presence.

"Ten policemen for 1,000 young people."

An eye-witness to the trouble which started at the bar called Liberto’s Bar, a 21-year-old woman from London known only as Chelsea, told Portuguese media: “Police officers came in and then the police officers and the boys started fighting.

6 One local said he'd seen "second division football games with more police presence" Credit: Facebook

“The police officers started hitting people with batons. They were beating up girls and then started shooting and everyone scattered.

“It was madness. The police beat up innocent people who weren’t doing anything. I’ve got a friend whose leg is broken.

“There were about 600 of us. We came on holiday to enjoy ourselves ourselves and enjoy Portugal and it hasn’t been nice.

“Taxi drivers don’t want to take us home. When we call up no-one wants to pick up our call.

“We’re just here to have fun, we’re not here to cause trouble. The police officers were too aggressive. What they did was too much. It was not nice. It was too forceful.”

6 Reports suggested there were around 1,000 Brits caught up in the violence Credit: Facebook

The violence broke out late last night.

One Brit holidaymaker, dressed in white like the other revellers around her, was taking a selfie video of herself on her mobile phone when she was stunned into silence by gunshots.

Motioning to groups of people behind her after the riot police had turned up, she said: “Back here we have the battlefields of Portugal. Everyone’s fighting. Gunshots, thank you very much” before screaming as the first gunshot rang out.

But British expat Becci Rich slammed the holidaymakers as animals.

She took to Twitter to rage: “Thank you for sending these thugs to our lovely town in Albufeira, destroyed bars, rude to businesses, fake money.”

Liberto Mealha, owner of Kiss Disco and Liberto’s Bar where the trouble kicked off, told Portuguese TV station SIC: “What happened last night and over the past few days is that a group of around 1,000 British tourists, staying mainly at Clube Praia da Oura, have caused a lot of problems in the area, including thefts in supermarkets and souvenir shops and damage to some rented scooters which they were driving without helmet or the proper licences.

“It’s very hard to control this situation at night-time. When there are conflicts between them, all we can do is call the authorities which is what we did last night.

“We had around 200 of these tourists in our bar and at one point a fight started between them. We called the police and the confusion spilled out onto the streets.

“We have our own security staff who stepped in to do what they could but with such a big number the situation became uncontrollable.

“Someone told me shots were fired in the air. It think it was an attempt at intimidating people so police could try to control the situation.”

6 Four people were arrested following the brawl Credit: Twitter

Last night event organisers distanced themselves from the trouble with a tweet saying: “Invasion Holidays and the associated companies do not condone the behaviour displayed last night.”

An event scheduled for tonight was cancelled following the problems.

A spokesman for one company thought to have been involved in organising the week-long festivities tweeted: “There is nothing we as a company could have done to avoid that situation.

“People left their senses back in England clearly.”

Portugal Invasion is billed as a “week jam packed with partying and activities “ on an official website.

Events over the week-long festival, due to finish tomorrow, have included sports days, day-time boat parties and themed parties at night including an all-white party and an army party.