Minister for Finance Mr Charlie McCreevy's arrival at the EU conference hall in Gothenburg was delayed today when a riot broke out on the street where his hotel is situated.
Mr McCreevy was on his way to a meeting with other EU leaders to discuss Ireland's recent rejection of the Nice Treaty. He was temporarily delayed in his hotel room as protesters took to the streets outside the building, but reached the conference hotel where the meeting is taking place without incident.
The riot spread through the streets of Gothenburg today, with protesters hurling rocks, lighting a bonfire and dragging mounted police off their horses.
Outnumbered police fell back street by street against the rioters' charges which brought them to within one kilometre of the conference hall where the 15 EU leaders were meeting, eyewitnesses said.
Several mounted police were knocked off their mounts by rocks or dragged off by attackers. Frightened riderless horses galloped back to police lines, skidding on paved roads.
The anti-capitalist protesters, incensed by tough police action so far to protect the EU summit, were virtually in control of several streets in the centre of the port city including its main street known as The Avenue.
Up to 25,000 activists from dozens of anti-EU, anti-US and anti-globalisation groups have descended on the picturesque port city, outnumbering police by as many as 25 to one.
Some lit a huge bonfire of rubbish and debris in the fashionable avenue lined with restaurants and shops, sending a huge plume of smoke over Sweden's second largest city.
Outside the conference building, a handful of demonstrators climbed over one section of a double steel fence and sat down in passive protest while officers looked on, and police helicopters clattered overhead.
The protesters waved flags with images of revolutionary heroes Lenin, Marx and Mao and banners with slogans such as Smash global capitalism as leaders made speeches through banks of loudspeakers.
Swedish police were also forced to close off a shopping district in central Gothenburg after locating what appeared to be a bomb.
"We have found a suspect object and we have closed off and evacuated the area," Gothenburg police spokesman Mr Tommy Hoff said.
Police detained over 240 protesters yesterday after clashes during US President George W. Bush's meeting with EU leaders.