Israeli police fired water cannons at thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem who threw stones in protest on Saturday against the opening of a public parking lot they see as a violation of religious law.

Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said six officers were injured by stones and some protesters were arrested in the scuffles that erupted at the Israeli city hall building.

The violence flared when hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews wearing traditional all-black or all-white garb of their particular sects threw rocks and empty bottles at police to shouts of "Shabbat," and tried to break into a parking lot beneath the city hall building officials had recently decided to open on the sabbath, a day most public buildings are closed.

Protesters "surrounded the building and were trying to break in from several directions" when police stopped them, Rosenfeld said.

Demonstrators responded by hurling rocks and feces-loaded diapers at the police, and hundreds more joined in confrontations that erupted in several other Jerusalem neighbourhoods, Rosenfeld said.

Ten demonstrators and a young stone-thrower were arrested and six officers were injured by stones five of them were treated by paramedics on the scene but one officer was hurt in the head by a stone and was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem for treatment.

The protestors carried out their leaders’ vow to fight against free parking, which they fear will lead to widespread desecration of the Sabbath. Mayor Nir Barkat has directed the city parking lots which is about 500 yards from Mea Shearim, to be available for free parking in order to encourage tourism.

City Hall lies very close to the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, a major tourist attraction.

In the last few years all parking lots near the Old City would close on the weekends due to haredi pressure, but recently, after it has been decide to bar vehicles from entering the Old City itself on weekends, a parking solution for the visitors became a more pressing problem.

Lacking designated parking spots, many drivers leave their cars on no parking roads around the Old City and the traffic problems this causes made the municipality decide to reopen the parking lots.

The parking lot was supposed to be opened by Druse employees who would serve as Shabbes Goys already last week, but police asked the municipality to delay its opening because of the Holiday of Shavuot.

The municipality decided that the parking lot will be opened on Saturday mornings and be free of charge until Shabbat goes out, approximately at 8 p.m. during the summer months.

United Torah Judaism members on the city council did not protest the move, after the mayor assured them that the parking lot would not be operated by Jews and that no money would change hands on Saturdays.

But Haredi communities not represented at the council denounced the decision, and on Friday Barkat visited the home of Jerusalem's hareidi-religious community leader Rabbi Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss, in an attempt to cool tensions and prevent the protests.

The sides were making progress until the meeting broke down, according to Haredi sources. Rabbi Weiss, threatened "to burn the city" and reportedly vowed to lead the protest personally. The rabbi's threat broke up the meeting.

Fliers posted in Mea She'arim on Friday read: "Prepare for a battle for Jerusalem."

The parking lot was open today only for a few hours, before being shut down by police ahead of the protests.

The violence began towards the end of the Sabbath as the protestors reached Safra Square, where City Hall is located, and police tried to prevent them from continuing to area’s plaza. Protesters also rallied in Haredi neighborhoods around the city, torching dumpsters.

Protestors charged that the police used unreasonable force against them, but law enforcement officials said that fire hoses were employed in order to disperse stone throwers, who injured several policemen.

Meanwhile, a small secular counter-protest of several dozen students from the Meretz party and the Jerusalem Awakening movement staged a counter-demonstration nearby, they had placards that read "This is not Teheran," and "The haredim have no shame." They were met by shouts of "Shabbes" and "Those who defile her shall be put to death."

Barkat's office denounced the violent demonstration. "The parking lot was opened in consultation with all sectors of the public, including the haredim, without the desecration of the Shabbat in order to solve the lack of parking in the city," Barkat spokesman Evyatar Elad said late Saturday, in a statement.

Speaking as the police were still dispersing small localized protests, Barkat said the dispute over the parking lot had brought conflicts over Shabbat back to the streets, and that the parking lot would be opened on Saturdays.

"It will be opened every Saturday. We stand behind the decision," Barkat's spokesman said.

In the meantime, Jerusalem police were planning to hold talks with haredi leaders in the city as well as the mayor to prevent further Shabbat protests.

Jerusalem Police Chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco called the haredi demonstration, whose size and force caught police by surprise, "brutal and severe."

But a protest organizer said that they would "ignite the city" and "do everything we can to prevent the opening of the parking lot."

The Orthodox Jewish community makes up about one-third of Jerusalem's 750,000 population.