NOVI SAD: Police deployed tear gas and stun grenades to disperse anti-government protesters in the Serbian city of Novi Sad late Friday.
Thousands had rallied to demand early elections in the latest student-led demonstration against perceived misgovernance.
The protests were sparked by the fatal collapse of the Novi Sad train station roof in November, which killed 16 people.
The tragedy was widely blamed on entrenched corruption, with initial demands for a transparent investigation evolving into calls for snap elections.
While most demonstrations have passed off peacefully, they degenerated into violence in mid-August, which protesters blamed on heavy-handed tactics by government loyalists and police.
Protesters at Friday’s rally repeated their calls for early elections and marched towards the city campus before police intervention.
According to Beta news agency, protesters had earlier thrown flares and bottles at police officers.
On Monday, tens of thousands of people marched in the capital Belgrade, Novi Sad and other cities to mark the 10-month anniversary of the tragedy.
After the march in Novi Sad, a group of protesters briefly clashed with police and claimed officers unprovokedly used stun grenades and rubber batons against them.
The protests have already led to the resignation of the prime minister and the collapse of his government.
President Aleksandar Vucic has remained defiantly in office at the helm of a reshuffled administration and has so far brushed off demands for early elections.
Vucic alleges the demonstrations, the largest of which have drawn hundreds of thousands of people, are part of a foreign plot.
Authorities have rejected allegations of brutality despite videos showing officers beating unarmed protesters and accusations that activists were assaulted while in custody.
Vucic’s ruling nationalist SNS party, in power since 2012, has responded by staging its own rallies around the country. – AFP
