BELGRADE (Reuters) -Serbia’s police used teargas and crowd control vehicles on Friday evening in Belgrade to disperse anti-government protesters who threw firecrackers and flares at police officers in what is seen as a major escalation of the nine-month-long protests.

The protesters gathered at around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) in front of the army headquarters building that was bombed in 1999 by NATO. Few hours later they started throwing flares at police officers.

Trash containers were overturned and set on fire. One tree caught fire. The police threw teargas canisters to push protesters away.

Protests were held in several other towns – Novi Sad, Nis, Kragujevac and Valjevo. Teargas was used in Nis as well. There were no official figures on how many people were injured.

Months of protests acr

See Full Page