SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Protests over a police officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed black man turned violent on Wednesday night in Oakland, local newspapers reported.

    Hundreds of protesters took to the street in downtown Oakland, a city about 8 miles (13 kilometers) east of San Francisco. They set fire to a trash bin and rammed it against a police car, the Oakland Tribune said on its website.

    The protests were triggered by Johannes Mehserle, a police officer of BART, the rapid-transit commuter rail system that serves the San Francisco Bay area, who fatally shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant early on New Year's Day at an Oakland BART station.

    Mehserle resigned on Wednesday, but Sean Dugar, president of the California National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth and College Division, said that was "not enough."

    "We demand he be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Dugar was quoted by the Oakland Tribune as saying.

    According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the protesters were confronted by dozens of police officers, who fired tear gas to break up the demonstration.

    There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests, the newspaper said.