Warning shots were fired by security forces as more than 50,000 supporters of the embattled Indonesia President, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, took to the streets yesterday.
The protesters tried to storm the local headquarters of the former ruling Golkar party, which has been critical of Mr Wahid, in the country's second city of Surabaya, in east Java.
One protester was reported to have been shot in the neck and at least two others injured during the rampage.
Yelling "Golkar is the tool of the New Order", the mob, which hugely outnumbered police, stormed offices looting equipment and then setting the buildings ablaze. They also set fire to the headquarters of the Golkar party in the nearby town of Probolinggo.
The protests - the biggest since Mr Wahid became Indonesia's first democraticallyelected leader 15 months ago - came as he faces mounting pressure to step down.
However, there was some reprieve for the President yesterday when the influential military rejected calls for his early impeachment over his alleged involvement in two multimillion-dollar scandals.
Mr Wahid's spokesman said Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's party has pledged to back him until the end of his term in 2004.
However, political enemies are pushing for an early special session of the top legislature, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), to consider deposing Mr Wahid (60) whose grip on power looks increasingly weak.
AFP adds: Police yesterday said they had found 1,400 home-made explosive devices in a warehouse in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, where several devastating bomb attacks in the past year have remained unsolved.
A police report said two men, the owner of the warehouse identified only as Mr Suwandi, and another man, Mr Robert Wijaya, had been charged as suspects for "the possession and selling of explosive materials".