European markets gave way to pressure from Wall Street, swinging steeply lower amid renewed concerns about the extent of possible rate rises by the Federal Reserve.
The FTSE Eurobloc 100 index lost 1.3 per cent at 1,061.29. The FTSE Eurotop 100 index came off 1.1 per cent at 2,931.03 and the broader FTSE Eurotop 300 index ended 1.1 lower at 1,277.72.
Frankfurt slipped 43.62 to 5,186.85 on the Xetra Dax index after early attempts at a rally on the back of favourable economic data gave way to widespread profit-taking.
Heavy fallers included Deutsche Telekom, which shed 76 cents at €38.54 and DaimlerChrysler, where the shares fell €1.75 at €71.51. Chemicals group Henkel lost €1.29 at €71.20.
Paris came down to earth after a good run, undermined by sharp falls by the two oil groups involved in a takeover battle.
The CAC 40, which enjoyed five straight sessions of gains before closing flat on Wednesday, ended 70.36 or 1.6 per cent lower at 4,408.90.
TotalFina and Elf Aquitaine, the oil groups that have made hostile bids for each other, both tumbled after Total's chairman played down the prospect of a substantially raised bid.
Zurich ended little changed with the SMI index maintaining a positive stance thanks mostly to a jump of almost 2 per cent at drugs heavyweight Roche.
Top of the range first-half results from Roche drove the shares up 295 Swiss francs (€184.62) to 17,480 Swiss francs (€10,939.36) and at the close the benchmark index was up 2.1 at 6,990.9.
Milan edged down with only Banca di Roma providing relief from worries about US interest rates.
The Mibtel dropped 187 or 0.8 per cent to 23,104.
Banca di Roma was the most actively traded stock after Mr Jan Kalff, chairman of ABN-Amro of the Netherlands, said his group planned to raise its stake from less than 10 per cent to more than 50 per cent.
