Frankfurt - European shares plummeted Friday as panic selling spread from Asia and the United States on renewed fears about the economic fallout from the global credit crisis.

As trading was launched, the benchmark Stoxx 50 had fallen by 7.5 per cent to 2120 points after shares on Wall Street dropped to their lowest in five years Thursday and Tokyo's Nikkei index cascaded down by about 10 per cent.

The fresh wave of worries drove up the gold price by more than 4 per cent with the deepening concerns about the economic outlook sending the oil price down by about 5 per cent. (dpa)