Police officers and soldiers grab a demonstrator on Wednesday in clashes between students and security forces

JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) -- Indonesian troops fired volleys of rubber bullets and tear gas into thousands of protesting students near parliament on Thursday, leaving at least 50 wounded, witnesses said.

It was the worst unrest in the capital since clashes between the military and students in mid-November left least 14 people dead.

The students later dispersed into the night, many going back to Atma Jaya University on the main Jakarta thoroughfare and scene of last month's fighting.

Two hospitals contacted by Reuters said they had about 40 wounded civilians, but did not know whether any of the injuries were serious.

One nurse said four of the wounded had back injuries that looked to have been caused by rubber bullets.

Witnesses saw about 10 police wounded by rocks thrown by students.

They estimated that up to 4,000 students, shouting "Revolution until we die!," hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at massed troops and police who were blocking their way to parliament in the city-centre.

The troops retaliated with volleys of rubber bullets and tear gas and hurled back rocks and Molotov cocktails at the students.

After a brief respite as the Moslem call for evening prayers rang through the city, troops and police, numbering around 500, started moving back towards the students, who later dispersed.

The students had been trying to march on parliament to demand the release of colleagues arrested in protests on Wednesday and urge President B.J. Habibie and armed forces chief General Wiranto to take responsibility for the deaths of other students in clashes with the military last month.

In the northern city of Medan, troops fired warning shots to disperse hundreds of angry farmers they were trying to evict from a state plantation.

The protests are the latest in a wave of unrest in the world's fourth most populous country which has been lurching through its worst political and economic crisis in over 30 years.

Student-led protests, which descended into violent rioting, forced ex-President Suharto to quit office in May after 32 years of autocratic, military-backed rule.

His successor and long-time associate, Habibie, has struggled to prevent mounting unrest spiralling out of control.

In an interview with Reuters earlier this week, Habibie played down concerns about the growing violence saying the country was safe for foreign investors-- who fled in droves earlier this year-- to return.

But he also warned Indonesians their country would be torn apart by civil strife if they took their new freedom too far.

It is the second government warning in two days for Indonesians not to abuse their newfound freedom.

On Wednesday, Education Minister Juwono Sudarsono, former head of a military think-tank, said political freedom had gone too far too fast and urged tight controls on campaigning to limit bloodshed in the countdown to the June general election.

But the military has been unable to stem much of the violence which has become endemic in many parts of the country, more used to decades of tight Suharto-led control.

During his iron rule, Suharto had managed to keep a lid on the deep religious and ethnic tensions in the huge archipelago and which some analysts fear are now being torn open as different interest groups struggle for a place in the current political vacuum.

This week, the armed forces proposed setting up a 40,000-strong civilian militia to help it keep the peace, a move widely condemned as more likely to add to the violence.

Many Jakarta residents say that growing crime, the result of growing anarchy and economic hardship, has turned the capital into an even more dangerous city than in May when rioting led to the deaths of at least 1,200 people and the ouster of Suharto.

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