About 100 youths have rioted in overnight clashes in the southern Swedish city of Malmo, setting cars and garbage bins on fire and stoning police.

Ewa-Gun Westford, a police spokeswoman, said the clashes on Wednesday and Thursday night were linked to the recent closure of an Islamic cultural centre in Malmo's heavily-immigrant populated neighbourhood of Rosengard.

The owner of the building had decided not to renew the centre's lease, which houses a mosque.

"We've had a very difficult evening. There's extensive damage to public property and there's been stone-throwing and bomb threats against police," Westford said.

He said: "The origin of the riots is the occupation of the building. But that's not really the reason now ... Now other trouble makers have just joined in, taking advantage of the situation."

Bottle throwing

One person was arrested and the protests turned violent after police evicted youths on Monday who for three weeks had occupied the basement, part of the Islamic centre.

Police guarded the location until Wednesday, and when they left, the youths tried to occupy the building again.

Riots broke out that night, when youths set fires in the area and threw stones and bottles at police.

The city of Malmo has a population of about 270,000, of whom about 21,000 people live in Rosengard.