COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish police rounded up foreigners it said had helped fuel a wave of violence that followed the eviction of activists from a Copenhagen youth center earlier this week.

A police officer stands in front of a burning barricade along the streets during a demonstration to support the youth house Ungdomshuset, in Copenhagen March 3, 2007. Danish police rounded up foreigners it said had helped fuel a wave of violence that followed the eviction of activists from a Copenhagen youth center earlier this week. REUTERS/Jens Noergaard Larsen/Scanpix

The arrests followed some of the worst violence early on Saturday, when police fought street battles with hundreds of youths who torched cars and vandalized a local school.

Media reports said organizers sought to rally supporters for fresh demonstrations via mass cell phone text messages. Police were braced for fresh clashes on Saturday night and drafted reinforcements from other districts and borrowed police vans from Sweden, police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said.

Attempts to restart violence on Saturday night were quickly quashed by police. A demonstration in Copenhagen’s multi-ethnic, working class Norrebro district was dispersed by police when some youths began hurling Molotov cocktails.

Earlier in the day, a peaceful demonstration was held ending in Norrebro district, the focus of recent protests with the hippie enclave Christiania.

“It’s a lot calmer tonight,” a police officer said.

Police said they raided houses, schools and hostels, detaining about 100 activists, half of whom foreigners. Local media said more than 600 people have been held since the violence erupted on Thursday. They included Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Italians, Irish, British and Spaniards.

Police said detained foreigners raids would be expelled.

The conflict over the youth center has simmered since 2000 when local government, which had lent it to the youngsters since 1982, sold the building to a religious group. Police moved to evict the squatters early on Thursday, implementing a court order issued last year.

VEHICLES TORCHED

Earlier on Saturday, Copenhagen saw some of the worst violence since the eviction of the squatters.

Witnesses said protesters vandalized a high school, threw cobblestones at police and smashed shop windows. Two police officers and three protesters have been injured, police said.

Minister of justice Lene Espersen on Friday praised the way police handled the protests to minimize injuries, and also urged parents to persuade their children not to resort to violence.

Activists have vowed to keep up the protests to retake control of the worn-down building in Norrebro in which artists such as Nick Cave and Bjork have performed.

The youths have repeatedly called for a political solution to the dispute over the youth center but rejected a proposal to move to another building.

Danish police in 1993 for the first and only time since World War Two fired into a demonstration, the night of a referendum on the European Union Maastricht treaty.

A total of 113 shots were fired and nine people hurt, prompting a public outcry and a reform of police strategy.

The scope of recent violence has stunned this relatively wealthy and peaceful Nordic country. But Denmark has a tradition of non-conformism and tolerance for rebellion against authorities, and many Copenhagen residents say they support the youngsters’ wish to stay in the youth house.

“The struggle will continue for a long time. As long as there is no Youth House in Copenhagen, there will be a fight to get one,” said Jan, a spokesman for the youth center.