(ANSA-AFP) - BERLIN, 10 OTT - Hundreds of people rioted in central Berlin late Friday to protest evictions from one of the few remaining squats, a symbol of the German capital's free-spirited ideals.

Berlin mobilised hundreds of law enforcement officials to remove residents of the "Liebig34" site in Friedrichshain, a hip part of former East Berlin where property prices have risen sharply. It went off peacefully. But in the evening, hundreds of masked and black-clad protesters marched in a driving rain from central Mitte shopping district with a banner: "Defend free spaces, remain on the offensive." Shop windows and cars were set ablaze, police said, adding officers had been pelted with bottles. Fire crackers were also set off in the central streets, with a thick cloud of smoke rising. A bus stop was destroyed.

Berlin police said they deployed 1,900 anti-riot officers to contain the violence over the removal earlier of people from the squat, which was rife with symbolism. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, blocks of abandoned houses in the east of the capital were taken over by students, young people, artists and activists. Some of the squats were subsequently legalised as housing projects. (ANSA-AFP).