Serbian police use teargas to disperse anti-government protesters

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NOVI SAD, Serbia (Reuters) -Serbia’s police on Friday used teargas and stun grenades at a university campus in Novi Sad to disperse protesters who demanded snap vote they hope would oust president Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

In an address late in the evening, Vucic said that 11 policemen were injured. There was no information on how many protesters have been injured.

On Friday evening, thousands gathered at the state university campus. Protesters held banners reading “We don’t want blockades, we want elections,” and “Students have one urgent demand: Call elections.”

The crowd shouted “Vucic, leave!”

Protesters scuffled with the police in front of the philosophy faculty and threw flares while police used teargas and stun grenades to push the crowd away.

“We are not going to allow destruction of the state institutions,” Vucic told reporters. “Serbia is a strong and responsible state.”

He accused foreign security services of being behind anti-government protesters in Serbia and said his supporters would hold rallies in cities across Serbia on Sunday.

Vucic and his SNS party have been rattled by months of protests across Serbia, including blockades of the state universities, sparked by the deaths of 16 people last November killed when the roof on a renovated railway station collapsed.

Protests were mainly peaceful until August 13 when dozens of police officers and civilians were injured in clashes.

Protesters have blamed corruption for the Novi Sad railway station disaster and are demanding early elections in hopes of ousting Vucic and his party.

Students, opposition groups, and anti-corruption watchdogs have accused Vucic and his allies of ties to organised crime, using violence against political rivals, and suppressing media freedoms – allegations they deny.

“The solution is to call elections,” Nebojsa Korac, one of the protesters said.

“On our side, we want peace and democracy to prevail, and for political institutions to do their job. That means calling elections, and that will be the solution, because the government will change.”

(Reporting by Fedja Grulovic and Branko Filipovic; Writing by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Alistair Bell and David Gregorio)