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Afghan police opened fire on protesters in Kabul today during a second day of tense anti-American demonstrations outside the country�s parliament. Medical personnel said that three people were admitted to hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. Officers used a water canon to try to disperse the mob, which was led by students from Kabul University. The protesters were demanding that American troops stand trial for allegedly burning a copy of the Koran, in nearby Wardak province. US and Afghan officials deny the allegations. "Police fired at the crowd, one bullet hit me. I was closing my shop at the time," said Sherullah, 18, from his hospital bed. He was hit in the hip. "They [policemen] were just firing. They were firing at the people," he added. Afghan officials insisted that the police had fired only warning shots into the sky and said that at least 15 officers were wounded in the clashes. Eyewitnesses said that protesters hurled stones at police defending the parliament compound, in the west of the city. Dozens of young men were arrested. Yesterday, demonstrators burnt an effigy of Barack Obama, while others chanted �Death to America� and tried to storm the parliament. The United Nations mission in Afghanistan appealed for calm today, amid fears that a second round of voting to decide the country�s fraud-ridden presidential elections could spark widespread violence. Earlier in the day the students had threatened to vandalise their campus, before faculty staff coaxed them on to the streets. "We were demonstrating, we wanted to protest the burning of Koran by the foreign forces but the police came and started beating us," a young man said from the back of a police vehicle. The students insisted their protests were spontaneous, but diplomats fear politicians are using the demonstrations as a show of force.