Tear gas rolled across the campus of Novi Sad’s state university on Friday night as Serbian riot police moved to break up a mass of anti-government demonstrators. Stun grenades cracked through the crowd, scattering protesters who had marched from the city center, chanting, “Vucic leave.”
The Beta news agency said flares and bottles were thrown at police as thousands pressed toward the campus gates. Officers in helmets advanced behind shields, their line lit by the glow of burning torches.
The protest was the latest in a wave of unrest that has gripped Serbia for nearly a year, triggered by the collapse of Novi Sad’s train station roof last November. Sixteen people died in that disaster, which opponents of President Aleksandar Vucic blame on corruption and neglect in state-run infrastructure projects.
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Tensions have been rising. On Monday, clashes erupted during a march marking ten months since the station tragedy. A month earlier, on August 13, dozens of civilians and officers were injured in violence across several cities.
Vucic addressed the country late Friday, saying 11 policemen had been wounded in Novi Sad. He gave no figures for civilian casualties. “We are not going to allow destruction of the state institutions,” he told reporters. “Serbia is a strong and responsible state.” He accused foreign intelligence services of backing the protests and said his supporters would hold rallies across the country on Sunday.
As the standoff stretched into the night, police trucks sealed off the main boulevard. Students leaned out from dormitory windows to film the gas drifting through the campus. Groups of protesters regrouped in side streets, waving flags and shouting slogans before surging back toward the university grounds.
The turnout — in the thousands — underscored the persistence of a movement born from grief. For many Serbians, the station collapse that killed 16 has become the symbol of a government they say no longer listens.