Serbian MPs injured as smoke bombs and tear gas thrown in parliament
Serbian MPs were injured after smoke bombs and tear gas canisters were hurled inside the country's parliament on Tuesday.
The chaotic scenes came amid growing fury at the government over a railway station roof collapse that killed 15 people, some of them children, last year.
Opposition MPs threw the devices in anger at ministers and in solidarity with demonstrators, many of them students, who have taken to the streets on an almost daily basis in recent months.
As the chamber filled with smoke, some opposition MPs lit flares and fought with security guards, while others unfurled a banner that read: 'Serbia will rise to bring down the regime.'
They also waved Serbian flags and held signs saying: 'Your hands are bloody' and 'Fulfil the students' demands'.
At least three MPs from the governing Serbian Progressive Party were injured, including one who suffered a stroke and was reported to be in a critical condition.
The scenes marked an escalation of the discontent that has swept the country and presented a stiff challenge to Aleksandar Vucic, the country's nationalist president.
Hundreds of thousands of Serbs have taken part in demonstrations following the station disaster in Novi Sad, the country's second-largest city, in November.
Protesters, including students, teachers, judges and farmers, have blamed the tragedy on shoddy construction standards, a lack of oversight and corruption within the government. They have marched in towns and cities across the country, demanding the full release of documents relating to the construction work.
The collapse of the railway station canopy has acted as a lightning rod for discontent with the president's increasingly autocratic rule.
Outside parliament, demonstrators held 15 minutes of silence – one minute for each of the victims. Meanwhile, the protests inside took place on the opening day of the parliament's spring session.
The proceedings had been due to confirm the resignation of Milos Vucevic, Serbia's prime minister, who announced in January that he was stepping down in an effort to calm tensions.
However, opposition MPs accused the president of trying to deflect blame for the tragedy by using the resignation as a distraction.
The clashes inside parliament further inflamed tensions, with Ana Brnabic, the parliament's speaker, describing opposition politicians as 'terrorists'.
Prosecutors have charged 13 people over their alleged involvement in the disaster, including the former minister for construction and transport, but protesters want the investigation to be broadened. Campaigners have called on the public to join another anti-government rally in Belgrade on March 15.
Mr Vucic, a former information minister in Slobodan Milosevic's brutal Yugoslav regime, became prime minister in 2014 before taking up the role of president three years later.
He has blamed 'foreign agents', including Western intelligence agencies, for stoking the protests.
Freedom House, a pro-democracy NGO, characterises Serbia as only 'partly free' despite it being a 'parliamentary democracy with competitive multi-party elections '.
The NGO said in recent years the country's ruling party had 'steadily eroded political rights and civil liberties, putting pressure on independent media, the political opposition and civil society organisations.'
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