Bulgaria: Anti-Government Protest Leads to Injuries, Arrests

Protesters gathered for a mass protest in front of the new National Assembly building, demanding government resignation in Sofia, Bulgaria, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
Protesters gathered for a mass protest in front of the new National Assembly building, demanding government resignation in Sofia, Bulgaria, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
TT

Bulgaria: Anti-Government Protest Leads to Injuries, Arrests

Protesters gathered for a mass protest in front of the new National Assembly building, demanding government resignation in Sofia, Bulgaria, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
Protesters gathered for a mass protest in front of the new National Assembly building, demanding government resignation in Sofia, Bulgaria, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

Bulgarians gathered in downtown Sofia for another anti-government protest Thursday after a demonstration the night before led to violence, injuries, and arrests.

Several thousand people faced off against riot police in front of the parliament building while demanding the resignations of Bulgaria's prime minister and the chief prosecutor late Wednesday, A small group began hurling small explosives and firecrackers at officers.

Police put a water cannon on the square between parliament, and the offices of the government and the president and cordoned off the area. Violent clashes erupted.

Sofia Police Chief Georgi Hadjiiski told reporters on Thursday that 80 police officers were injured and 126 people were detained, including 62 with criminal records as football hooligans.

He said "a threshold of tolerance has been crossed" by demonstrators, who have held regular anti-government rallies for nearly two months. After Wednesday's clashes, police removed tent camps erected by protesters blocked two key crossroads in the Bulgarian capital, the police chief said.

The Union of Bulgarian Journalists issued a statement condemning "violence against journalists" during the police response.

Earlier on Wednesday, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said that the resignation of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and his Cabinet was the only way out of the political turmoil.

But senior officials from Borissov´s ruling center-right party said Thursday that after the violent events they will stop all debates about a possible resignation.

"If we do so, it would mean that any upcoming government could be toppled by representatives of the criminal underworld," the party said in a statement.



Railway Collision in Eastern India Kills 15

Onlookers watch as rescuers work after a cargo train rammed into Kanchanjunga Express, a passenger train, near New Jalpaiguri station, West Bengal state, India, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Diptendu Dutta)
Onlookers watch as rescuers work after a cargo train rammed into Kanchanjunga Express, a passenger train, near New Jalpaiguri station, West Bengal state, India, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Diptendu Dutta)
TT

Railway Collision in Eastern India Kills 15

Onlookers watch as rescuers work after a cargo train rammed into Kanchanjunga Express, a passenger train, near New Jalpaiguri station, West Bengal state, India, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Diptendu Dutta)
Onlookers watch as rescuers work after a cargo train rammed into Kanchanjunga Express, a passenger train, near New Jalpaiguri station, West Bengal state, India, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Diptendu Dutta)

A freight train smashed into the rear of a stationary passenger train in India's West Bengal state on Monday, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens, police said, in an accident that railway authorities blamed on a disregarded signal.

Media showed images of the pile-up, with containers from the goods train strewn nearby, and one carriage left nearly vertical after the accident, which comes just over a year after a signaling error caused one of India's worst rail crashes.

At least 15 bodies have been pulled from the mangled carriages, Abhishek Roy, a senior police official in the eastern state's district of Darjeeling, the site of the accident, told Reuters.
Nearly 30 people were injured and rescue teams from the police and national disaster response force were working with doctors and residents of the area to clear debris from the derailed carriages, Roy added.

The goods train hit the Kanchanjunga Express travelling to Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, from the northeastern state of Tripura, driving three carriages of the passenger train off the rails.
It was not immediately clear how many passengers were on board at the time.

Rescuers used iron rods and ropes to work free one carriage of the passenger train that had been swept upwards to lodge on the roof of the freight train by the impact of the collision.

The dead included the driver of the freight train and a guard on the passenger train, Jaya Varma Sinha, the head of the railway board that runs the countrywide network, told reporters.

The accident happened after the driver of the freight train disregarded a signal and hit the rear end of the express train, Sinha added.

Rescue work has been completed, Sinha said, while authorities were working to restore traffic, although the damage had been less extensive than initially feared.

"The guard's compartment in the passenger train was badly damaged," he added. "There were two parcel vans attached ahead of it which reduced the extent of damage to passengers."

Nearby residents heard a loud crash and saw the pile-up upon going to investigate, several told the ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences on the loss of life in the accident and said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was on his way to the site.