Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Armenia campaign rally blast hurts 144 - officials

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Armenia campaign rally blast hurts 144 - officials

    swissinfo.ch, Switzerland
    May 4 2012


    Armenia campaign rally blast hurts 144 - officials

    YEREVAN (Reuters) - More than 140 people were hurt at a campaign rally
    in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Friday, when hundreds of small
    balloons went up in flames, burning people and sparking panic, two
    days before an election, an emergency official said.

    Gas-filled balloons appeared to have exploded after being ignited by a
    cigarette at the rally, staged by the ruling Republican Party in
    Republic Square in the centre of Yerevan, local media said.

    "I heard an explosion and saw flames rising high," said a 30-year-old
    woman who identified herself as Susan. "People rushed away from the
    square, and I saw a man with a burnt face and a girl whose back was on
    fire."

    A video posted online by Internet television station Panorama.am
    showed a large but short-lived flame billowing in the middle of the
    crowd where hundred of white balloons had been flying moments before.

    Health Minister Harutyun Kushkyan told state television many people
    were injured in the chaos as people tried to flee. She described the
    condition of the injured as "satisfactory".

    Opinion polls have shown the Republican Party and its coalition ally,
    Prosperous Armenia, winning more than 60 percent of the votes in
    Sunday's parliamentary election, signalling little or no change in
    government.

    The 2008 presidential elections in Armenia - a landlocked ex-Soviet
    republic of 3.2 million that is Russia's main ally in the South
    Caucasus - were marred by violent clashes between opposition
    protesters and police.

    (Reporting by Hasmik Mkrtchan; Writing by Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by
    Robin Pomeroy)

    Reuters

Working...
X