Ukraine: Streets of rage erupt in flames as clashes continue

Facing them is the angry mob, armed with petrol bombs, bricks, and anything it can use as a weapon. Many wear motorbike helmets, saucepans and even colanders as protection.Weeks of sporadic clashes reached a new fervour as police tried to break up a protest camp in the Ukraine capital of Kiev.At least three protesters died, two of them reportedly shot and another who fell from the top of the Dynamo football stadium.Protesters threw rocks and fire bombs and riot police responded by using tear gas and rubber bullets.Tonight tyre fires were lit by protesters. Police responded by sending in armoured vehicles. The BBC’s David Stern, in Kiev, said: ‘The ongoing fighting has been ferocious, but limited.‘But all this may be about to change. More activists are flooding into Kiev from the west, and crowds are massing at the site of the clashes.’In a statement, the country’s three main political parties blamed the president Viktor Yanukovych and his interior minister for ‘this act of terror of dictatorship against citizens’.Violence broke out in the capital on Sunday in response to the government’s introduction of anti-protest laws and a turn away from the EU towards Russia.However, prime minister Mykola Azarov insisted the deaths were ‘on the consciousness and responsibility of the organisers and certain participants of mass disturbances’.(metro.co.uk)ANN.Az