HUNGARY: Demonstrators clash with riot police in Budapest

Five are injured as thousands of anti-government protesters clash with riot police in the Hungarian capital. Right-wing anti-government protesters faced tear gas and water cannons as they clashed Monday (October 22) with riot police ahead of the anniversary of Hungary's 1956 uprising against Soviet rule. The demonstrators threw molotov cocktails to set a water cannon truck on fire near Budapest's Opera House where Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany was attending a state event ahead of the October 23 anniversary of the uprising. At least five were injured, among them, three photographers. Police arrested three people, Hungarian state news agency MTI reported. Demonstrators used cars to block a street in the centre of Budapest before police drove them back and split them into small groups. The demonstrations come one year after protests in 2006 in which hundreds were injured over several weeks of demonstrations. Gyurcsany, whose leaked admission on a tape that he had lied about the poor state of the country's finances to win re-election last year triggered the protests, called for calm. Despite weeks of violent protests in 2006 and the prospect of tens of thousands of people attending opposition rallies on Tuesday, Gyurcsany remains firmly in control and is implementing economic reforms to cut Hungary's huge budget deficit. President Laszlo Solyom, a fierce critic of Gyurcsany, said police violence from last year had still not been punished.

ITN Source | October 23, 2007

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