Riots mark uprising

last updated 8 January 2015

Budapest

Demonstrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian anti-Soviet uprising turned violent this week. Anti-government protesters have been camped out in central Budapest since mid-September, when Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany was heard admitting on a leaked tape that his government had lied about the economy to win re-election. During the anniversary celebrations, some protesters threw rocks at police, who responded with rubber bullets, batons, and water cannons. Opposition leaders said the police beat women and old people as well as the young rock-throwers. The 1956 Hungarian uprising was a failed attempt to throw off communist rule; some 2,600 Hungarians were killed when Soviet tanks fired on crowds.