Georgian police fired water cannons and tear gas today at protesters calling for the resignation of pro-US president Mikhail Saakashvili.
Riot police with batons and shields moved in to clear the area outside the parliament as police in balaclavas chased protesters, some of whom had been demonstrating for six days, through the streets.
Opposition leader Tina Khidasheli said around 1,000 police were involved in the crackdown."There had been about 100 demonstrators outside parliament, including 47 hunger strikers, she added.
The protesters accuse Mr Saakashvili of economic mismanagement and corruption.
A Russian television crew said police had taken away pictures and video they had filmed during the operation. Thousands have attended the rallies since Friday, posing the largest challenge to Saakashvili's authority since he swept to power in a peaceful 2003 revolution.
Georgia lies at the centre of the Caucasus region - a landbridge between Asia and Europe which hosts a pipeline pumping oil from the Caspian Sea to the West.
Tbilisi's mayor Gigi Ugulava defended the police action. "I was listening to one of the opposition leaders who was saying proudly they planned to pitch tents and set up a tent town in Tbilisi," he told a news briefing.
"What we did is stop this because it is the will of the people not to have a tent town in Tbilisi."