The President appealed for calm after more than 100 MPs, ministers and staff were forced to spend the night in parliament as demonstrators blocked the exits and held off police by throwing stones.

It was the first outbreak of violence in more than 40 days of anti-government protests.

Thousands of Bulgarians angry at what they say is entrenched state corruption and nepotism have been gathering in Sofia each day, and up until this week there had been a peaceful atmosphere.

But on Tuesday night, several hundred protesters formed a human chain outside the parliament building, trapping those inside. Attempts by police to bring in a bus to rescue them failed when protesters pelted it with stones. Both police and demonstrators were injured in the scuffles.

Riot police finally managed to breach the protesters’ blockade of paving stones and rubbish bins at about 3am, eight hours after the siege began. Parliament remained closed and under heavy police guard, and President Rosen Plevneliev called on protesters to remain “peaceful and civilized”. 

Comments

or to comment
(Logout)
Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines.

Community Guidelines

  • You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully
  • Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable
  • Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties
  • We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification

You can find our Community Guidelines in full here.
  • •
  • •
  • RSS
See more