Equality march marred by violence in eastern Poland
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
13.10.2018 17:00
Police in eastern Poland used water cannon, sound grenades and tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters who attempted to disrupt an equality march on Saturday, according to news reports.
Photo: PAP/Wojtek Jargiło
Officers cordoned off supporters of a group known as the National-Radical Camp (ONR), who staged a counter-rally and tried to block the LGBT march from going ahead in the eastern city of Lublin, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Before the equality march got under way, protesters pelted marchers with firecrackers, rocks and bottles, the news agency said.
It added that officers also braved small stones and firecrackers thrown at them by protesters.
Several dozen people have been detained and two officers suffered minor injuries during the unrest, a spokesman for police told reporters.
Police put the number of the most aggressive troublemakers at around 200, while the number of marchers was estimated at roughly 1,500, private broadcaster TVN 24 reported.
Saturday’s march went ahead after an appeals court a day earlier overruled a decision by a lower court that sided with the Lublin mayor, Krzysztof Żuk, who had prohibited the event while citing security concerns.
(gs)
Source: IAR, TVN 24