Poland Independence Day march turns violent
Poland Independence Day march turns violentThe police were pelted with firecrackers and lumps of concrete
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Clashes broke out in Warsaw as riot police confronted right-wing nationalists during a Polish Independence Day march.
Some of an estimated 20,000 marchers threw fireworks and bricks at police who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
A police spokesman said two officers were injured and several protesters were detained.
Thousands of police had been deployed to prevent the march turning violent.
Last year, at least 200 people were arrested after clashes broke out when anti-fascist groups tried to blockade the nationalists' march.
'Extremists and hooligans' Diverse groups including Polish patriots, nationalists and groups of football hooligans took part in Sunday's march. Many of the young men wore scarves or balaclavas over their faces.
Nationalist marches have been growing in size on the national holiday, with leftists turning out to oppose them, says the BBC's Adam Easton, in Warsaw.
[img=304,171]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64072000/jpg/_64072246_64070829.jpg[/img] Police were out in large numbers to prevent a repeat of last year's violence
Last year's march dwarfed its predecessors, with numbers swollen by football supporters outraged by a government clampdown on violent fans.
However, two other marches marking the day in 1918 when Poland regained its sovereignty after years of foreign rule passed without incident.
To prevent clashes this year the marches took different routes.
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski also organised his own Independence Day march with military veterans in an attempt to reclaim the day from what he called "extremists and hooligans".
Ahead of the march he appealed for a less polarised society.
"Today public life is poisoned by excessive rows," he said. "We should be critical, but criticism should not mean mutual destruction."
The 11 November celebration marks the day when Poland regained its independence, 123 years after it was divided between Russia, Prussia and the Austrian Empire.
[url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20286409]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20286409[/url] Polish police use water cannon to push back far-right rioters
By Adrian Krajewski
WARSAW Tue Nov 11, 2014 2:13pm EST
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Protesters taunt the police as several hundred masked men broke away from a far-right march and threw stones and flares at lines of riot police in Warsaw November 11, 2014. REUTERS-Kacper Pempel
Several hundred masked men threw stones and flares at lines of riot police after they broke away from a far-right march Warsaw November 11, 2014. REUTERS-Kacper Pempel
A far-right protester holds a flare during the annual far-right rally, which coincides with Poland's National Independence Day in Warsaw November 11, 2014. REUTERS-Kacper Pempel
1 of 9. Protesters taunt the police as several hundred masked men broke away from a far-right march and threw stones and flares at lines of riot police in Warsaw November 11, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Kacper Pempel
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(Reuters) - Police in the Polish capital used water cannon and fired rubber bullets into the air on Tuesday to push back several hundred masked men who broke away from a far-right march and threw stones and flares at lines of riot police.
Nationalist groups who believe traditional Polish values are under threat march through Warsaw each year to mark the anniversary of Polish independence, and for the fourth year in a row their procession turned violent.
When the march, involving tens of thousands of people, crossed a bridge over the Vistula river to the eastern bank near the national soccer stadium, a group of people broke away.
They tore up paving slabs and benches from a nearby bus station and hurled them at police, a Reuters reporter said.
The police responded by firing rubber bullet rounds into the air, and used jets of water, stained red by a colouring agent, from four water cannon trucks to push them back.
Three men tried to move forward using a large blue road sign they had torn down as a shield but were also driven back.
The Reuters reporter saw one man bleeding from a wound to his head and Polish television showed a police officer being stretchered into an ambulance.
Police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said more than 200 people had been detained, many of them before the march started for carrying items that could be used as weapons.
He said officers had contained the rioters in the area around the soccer stadium and were bringing the confrontation under control. The majority of the marchers carried on peacefully to a rally nearby.
Led by a centre-right government, Poland is enjoying a period of prosperity unprecedented in its modern history.
But some Poles feel traditional values - including a strong attachment to the Catholic church, and opposition to abortion and same-sex marriages - are being sacrificed as Poland embraces the ideals of the European Union.
At the start of the march, participants chanted "Down with the European Union!" One small group in the crowd, from the city of Chelm, began making Nazi-style salutes, but organisers intervened to stop them.
(Additional reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/11/us-poland-march-clashes-idUSKCN0IV1NB20141111[/url]
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