Sunday, 17.04.2005
17:13 - 24.03.2005
Bulgarian Journalist Injured in Kyrgyzstan Clashes
SOFIA (bnn)- A Bulgarian journalist was hospitalized with head injuries she suffered in clashes between security forces and demonstrators, who stormed the presidential headquarters in Kyrgyzstan’s capital of Bishkek Thursday.Desislava Rizova, an envoy of the Sofia daily Monitor, told the private Info Radio by phone she was in hospital with a concussion and four stitches on her scull after being hit by a police baton.
"A group of some 500 police in riot gear came and started clubbing everybody at random _ including women, children, pregnant women, journalists," Rizova told the radio.
Thousands of angry opponents of Kyrgyzstan's president Askar Akayev stormed his headquarters Thursday, while Akayev and his family were reportedly flown to safety to Kazakhstan according to an unconfirmed report by Russia’s Interfax news agency.
Black smoke billowed from the building where protesters thronged, reports said.
Hours earlier protesters broke through a riot police cordon around the government and presidential headquarters, rushing in through the building's front doors.
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