(8 Jul 2020) Protesters in Belgrade expressed anger at Serbia's president on Tuesday after he announced that a lockdown will be reintroduced in the country due to rising coronavirus numbers.
The announcement came as the Balkan country reported its highest single-day death toll from COVID-19 on Tuesday.
"Our good president lifted the state of emergency because of the election, and now he wants to impose it again," said one protester.
President Aleksander Vucic has denied those claims.
Residents fought running battles with police and tried to storm the parliament building.
Police fired several rounds of tear gas at the protesters, some chanting "Resignation! Resignation!" as they gathered in front of the downtown parliament building in the Serbian capital.
Some of the protesters briefly managed to enter the parliament by force, but were pushed back by riot police.
The protesters responded by hurling flares, stones, bottles and eggs at the police.
Several clashes erupted between some of the most extremist rioters apparently belonging to far-right groups and the baton-wielding police.
Earlier, Vucic called the virus situation in Belgrade "alarming" and "critical" as the city's hospitals neared their capacity limits after health officials reported the highest single-day death toll from the coronavirus on Tuesday.
Thirteen people were registered dead and 299 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed.
That brought the total to 16,719 confirmed cases and 330 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic in Serbia, which went from having one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns to a near-complete reopening at the beginning of May.

Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ] ​​
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]


You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]

свернуть