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Budapest burns
By Gergely Rónai
SOME 10-20 policemen were trapped for a time without backup in the lobby of the headquarters of national broadcaster MTV, on Szabadság tér in Pest's District V, on Monday night (Sep 18), while protesters tried to storm the building.
According to eyewitnesses, the size of the crowd was between 2,000 and 3,000 demonstrators.
The number of riot police, put at between 50-60, were too few, and too thinly spread, to control the crowd.
"The police in Hungary are not prepared to deal with such violent acts as there are around 1,000 too few," a police officer who wished to remain unnamed told The Budapest Sun.
Police spokesperson László Garamvölgyi told commercial TV station RTL Klub during the evening that additional officers were expected to arrive from the countryside to help settle the situation.
However, a police officer on the scene told The Sun that, by that time, some injured policemen from Baranya county (in southwest Hungary), were already being treated in a hospital.
By Tuesday morning, the streets were quiet, with almost all the demonstrators having dispersed.
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