Tensions soar in Serbia as protesters clash with police
Wearing scarves over their faces and chanting slogans against President Aleksandar Vucic, a group of young men threw flares at his Serbian Progressive Party offices in Valjevo, some 100km (60 miles) from the capital Belgrade.
They set fire to the party's offices before clashing with riot police in a downtown area.
Police threw multiple rounds of tear gas and charged at the demonstrators who hurled bottles, rocks and flares at them.
Serbian gendarmerie officers guard a street during an anti-government protest near the Serbian Progressive Party office in Belgrade on Friday (Darko Vojinovic/AP)
Similar clashes also erupted on Saturday evening in Belgrade, with police directing tear gas at protesters while battling the protesters who set rubbish containers on fire.
The protesters in Valjevo turned out onto the streets to protest against what they allege is police brutality.
There were no immediate reports on the numbers of injured people in either Valjevo or Belgrade.
Serbia has been gripped by protests since November, when a train station canopy collapse killed 16 people. Many blamed the tragedy on poor renovation work resulting from widespread corruption in infrastructure projects.
The student-led protests had been largely peaceful for months but turned violent this week. The situation has put pressure on Serbia's increasingly autocratic president Mr Vucic, who has refused the protesters' demand to call an early parliamentary election.
Mr Vucic has accused the protesters of following orders from abroad to 'destroy Serbia', and promised a crackdown on the nationwide movement led by university students.
A Serbian riot police officer directs a man filming after clearing people blocking a street (Darko Vojinovic/AP)
The protest in Valjevo drew several thousand people after a video on social media showed a young man from the town being severely beaten by police who kicked him and hit him with batons during a protest earlier this week.
The gathering was peaceful until groups of protesters threw flares at the SNS offices which sparked a fire inside.
The incident marks the second such attack on the SNS party offices this week after protesters demolished the party headquarters in the northern city of Novi Sad on Wednesday.
Clashes between the SNS party loyalists and police on one side and anti-government protesters on the other side have erupted every evening since then. Dozens of people have been injured and scores have been detained.
Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, has called for 'calm and respect of the right to peaceful assembly'.
'Serbian authorities must uphold Council of Europe standards,' he said on X this week.
Serbian police have denied reports of brutality, saying they have been attacked and that dozens of officers have been injured in the rioting.
Serbia is formally seeking EU membership, but Mr Vucic has maintained strong ties with Russia and China. The Serbian president has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms while allowing organised crime and corruption to flourish. He has denied this.
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Irish Independent
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