DEMONSTRATORS CONTINUE TO ATTACK POLICE

BELGRADE, MAY 23 /SRNA/ - Participants in the protest, called by students in a blockade, continued this evening to attack police deployed around Pionirski Park, while law enforcement is pushing them back.

Protesters are throwing stones and other objects at the police, and many of them are masked with T-shirts and scarves, Tanjug reports. The gathering at Slavija Square ended, as announced, shortly before 20:00. While returning from Slavija Square, some participants knocked down a fence near the Presidency building and threw a large number of pyrotechnic devices, stones, and other objects at the police. Strong police forces are deployed around Pionirski Park, with one cordon near the City Assembly, another near the monument to Tsar Nicholas, and a third near the Presidency building. A gathering of citizens supporting Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and opposing the blockades is being held in Pionirski Park. Commenting on the unrest, Ana Brnabić questioned whether this is what the blockading students have to offer. “If you had something like this in Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, The Hague, or Berlin, their police would resolve it in five minutes by arresting half of them immediately and dispersing the rest using the most forceful means,” Brnabić told reporters. She assessed that the Serbian police are reacting with full restraint to preserve peace and even to protect the demonstrators, who, as she said, are attacking cowardly with thunder crackers and all kinds of other means.