Georgian police on Wednesday raided the offices of an opposition party and arrested its leader in an apparent attempt to squelch a wave of mass protests triggered by the governing party’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union.

The leader of Georgia's main opposition party has been detained by police in the capital Tbilisi after being knocked to the ground and falling unconscious, his party said, the most high-profile in a sweeping wave of arrests of senior opposition figures.

Georgia’s interior ministry has said that 107 people were arrested during Friday’s protests in the capital Tbilisi sparked by the government’s decision to delay the former Soviet country’s bid to join the European Union.