The resident, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said heavy gunfire could be heard in the city center and witnesses reported several casualties.
He told AP that the shooting began after protesters set fire to a bronze statue of the late President Hafez Assad, President Bashar Assad's father.
Tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets across the country Friday in the most widespread unrest in the late civil contempt of the crowd of government supporters with batons and security forces to shout their support an uprising in the southern city of Dara, according to witnesses, activists and images available online.
The Mediterranean coast from the capital, Damascus, one of the most repressive governments in the Middle East seemed unable to quickly to a rising tide of calls for reform.
Daraa thousands of people from Central Square Assad, many nearby villages, chanting "Freedom! Freedom! "And waving Syrian flags and olive branches, a resident told The Associated Press by telephone.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, he said that over 50,000 people were shouting slogans denouncing the presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban, who promised Thursday that the government planned a series of reforms in response to a week of unrest in Daraa.
A human rights activist, quoting witnesses, said thousands of people gathered in the city Duma outside the capital, Damascus, promising support for the people of Dara. The militants asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
Security forces dispersed the crowd chasing them, beating some with truncheons and other detention, "said one activist, asking that his name not be published for fear of reprisals by the government.
Damascus the capital was tense, with convoys of Syrian youth roam the streets in their cars, honking incessantly and waving pictures of President Bashar al-Assad and Syrian flags. Convoys briefly blocked streets in some areas.
Apart from the famous Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, dozens of people gathered, chanting pro-Assad during a small group of people started shouting slogans in support of opposing Daraa martyrs. Police dispersed the demonstrators peacefully.
Also, in Damascus, about 200 people protested after Friday prayers in Thawra Bridge, near the central square of Marjeh, chanting "our soul, our blood we sacrifice for you Dara," and "freedom, freedom .
"They were chased by security forces who beat some of them with sticks and other inmates, an activist who requested anonymity for fear of government reprisals.
In the city of Aleppo, hundreds of worshipers emerged from mosques shouting "with our lives, our souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you Bashar" and "Only God, Syria and Bashar!"
The inhabitants of the northern city of Homs, hundreds of people demonstrated in support of Dara and reforms required.
The activist said that in the coastal city of Latakia, more than 1,000 people marched through the streets after Friday prayers. In the northern city of Raqqa, scores and marched several people were arrested, "he said.
And in the western city of Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, several people were arrested after protesting, "he said.
Journalists who tried to enter Daraa the old town - where most of the violence took place - were escorted out of town on Friday by two security vehicles.
"As you can see, everything is back to normal and it is" a major in the army, standing outside the office of chief of the Baath Party to power in Daraa, told reporters before being driven out of the city.
The security forces seem to be trying to reduce tension in Daraa by the dismantling of checkpoints and ensure that there was no military presence visible in the streets for the first time since last Friday, when the protests began.
Shaken by unrest, the Syrian government has pledged Thursday to consider lifting some of the most repressive laws in the Middle East to try to stop the uprising a week to spread and threaten her rule of almost 50 years.
But the promises were immediately dismissed by many activists who have called for demonstrations across the country on Friday in response to the repression that the protesters say killed dozens of anti-government demonstrators in Dara.
"We will not forget the martyrs of Dara," one resident told The Associated Press by telephone. "If they think that silence us they are wrong."
Assad, a close ally of Iran and its regional proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, has promised new freedoms for disgruntled citizens and pay and increased benefits for workers of state - a familiar package of incentives offered by Other Arab regimes nervous in recent weeks.
Shaaban, Presidential Advisor, also said that the Baath party would study ending a state of emergency he has put in place after taking power in 1963.
The emergency laws, which were a feature of many Arab countries, people can be arrested without warrant and imprisoned without trial.
Human rights groups say violations of other fundamental freedoms are widespread in Syria, torture and abuses common in police stations, detention centers and prisons, and dissidents regularly imprisoned for years without process.
The record of the suppression of a week was not clear and could not be independently confirmed. Shaaban said 34 people were killed in the conflict. - (AP)
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