The squatters whose treatment by police sparked an anti-Tesco riot near the centre of Bristol have denied any connection with activists campaigning against the supermarket giant.

Speaking in the aftermath of one of the most serious outbreaks of disorder in Bristol since the St Pauls riots in 1980, the four occupants of "Telepathic Heights", which was raided by police on Thursday night, also denied they had been manufacturing Molotov cocktails in the squat.

"We had no intention of attacking Tesco whatsoever," said Gavin Houghton, 28. "It was never on the cards – we have nothing to do with the anti-Tesco protest. They're a separate group.

"This is a nice building and it would be suicide if we started throwing petrol bombs off the roof. We would never do that. It's not what we're about."

Avon and Somerset police maintain that the operation was justified and said its officers had found petrol bombs on the roof of the building which had been taken away for tests.

A spokesman said its forensic experts were trying to establish who made the bombs. He added: "We need to try and link it to the actual people involved because there are a number of people at the address."

Around 160 police officers in riot gear raided the squat in the Stokes Croft area to arrest a number of people they said posed "a real threat to the local community".

But the operation sparked violent protests amid allegations of heavy-handed tactics. Eight police officers were injured and recently opened Tesco store was badly damaged. Nine protesters were arrested, four of whom appeared before Bristol magistrateson Saturday. None of the four squatters remaining in the building were arrested.

Houghton and Salim Noormohammad, also 28, told the Observer that the police raid had been violent and unwarranted.

According to the squatters, the night the police arrived most of those living in the house had already moved out. The group had been in contact with Bristol city council's empty homes agency and were removing the last of their stuff.

"We were working on tidying the place up, as you do – it's a house, so it's got to be tidy," says Houghton.

"Then Salim said the police were trying to get in the front door, so I stopped painting. My first instincts were that there were going to be a few police to tell us that we were going to be evicted. But when I looked out the window it was a completely different story.

"There were 30 to 40 police officers all dressed up in riot gear and they stormed the building."

Noormohammad said that after the officers broke through the door they tipped over the sofas and ripped them open, before emptying the squatters' recycling box over the floor.

"Then," claimed Houghton, "one of the officers barged me in the face with his shield and pushed me across the room and told me to sit down on the floor. Whilst he was pushing me I said, 'Leave me alone, I'm not doing anything to you.' Then he started shouting, 'Sit there, don't move.'

"I think once they realised there were only four of us in the building, they calmed down."

Houghton said the police officers told him that they were looking for petrol bombs.

According to witnesses the operation to clear the squat attracted a large crowd of people which blocked Cheltenham Road, one of the main routes into the city centre. By 1am on Friday there was serious trouble outside the Tesco store. Barricades were erected, bottle banks were emptied and their contents hurled at police, rubbish bins were set alight and a concrete slab was thrown at an officer who was knocked to the ground.

Lewis Clapham, 22, a customer services worker, got caught up in the violence which lasted for several hours. He said: "I wasn't involved in the protest or the squat. I just happened to be down there and I went up to the police and said I was just passing through, but one of them came and hit me really hard with a baton. I've got bruising all down my side now with massive swelling on my elbow."

Squatters Noormohammed and Philip Pezard have degrees in English and photography respectively. Noormohammad and Houghton are unemployed and Pezard works as a chef, but said he still didn't have enough money to rent a home. They said that none of them imagined squatting after university and all claimed to be busy trying to find jobs rather than mounting a campaign against the supermarket chain. "This thing against Tesco," said Pezard, "it's the last thing on my mind."

The general mood in Stokes Croft is somewhat different. Hostility towards Tesco is apparent almost everywhere you look. For more than a year the residents have run a noisy campaign to stop the chain from opening one of its Express stores on the busy road.

"No Tesco" graffiti dots walls up and down the road for a mile. Most prominent is a giant mural which gives a clear message to those entering the area: "Think Local, Boycott Tesco."

People have also held sit-down protests outside the store every day since its opening less than a fortnight ago. But, amid fears that violence could continue in Bristol over the bank wholiday weekend, the last residents of Telepathic Heights remained adamant that the police were looking in the wrong place for anti-supermarket activists.