ASUNCION, Paraguay – Paraguay's president Wednesday condemned violent protests that erupted a day earlier but said he understood anger over a court verdict related to a fire in a supermarket that killed about 350 people.

Protesters burned cars, looted a supermarket and pelted riot police with stones during Tuesday's violence, which was triggered by the court ruling that was considered too lenient by survivors of the 2004 fire and relatives of the victims.

Three men who were accused of locking the supermarket's doors to stop looting when the fire broke out were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, but prosecutors had called for a murder conviction, which carries a much longer jail sentence.

President Nicanor Duarte Frutos said he regretted Tuesday's violence but shared the view that the verdict had not been sufficiently tough.

“I've expressed my solidarity to the families and reaffirmed my hope that this ruling can be immediately put right,” he told reporters, adding that he had spoken to the attorney general about the verdict.

Police and medical officials said 53 people were hurt and 81 arrested during the unrest that flared after Tuesday's ruling.

Teams of street cleaners worked to get Asuncion's commercial district back to normal, but many shops kept their shutters down. About 500 demonstrators gathered outside parliament in a fresh protest against the court's verdict.

In what was Paraguay's worst peacetime tragedy, the blaze broke out in a grill restaurant in the vast Ycua Bolanos supermarket on the outskirts of the capital.

The three men convicted were one of the supermarket's owners, his son and a security guard who prosecutors said had followed their orders to lock the building's exits.