(BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)
The Intervention Police and Gendarmerie attacked the people gathered on April 28 in front of the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education in Novi Sad to try to prevent the dean of the Faculty from entering the building.
According to a BETA reporter, they attacked the crowd from all sides, hitting and pushing them with shields, beating them with batons, and spraying tear gas into their eyes.
Emergency medical teams responded in five cases, and four people were transported to the Emergency Center.
Hundreds of students, citizens, bikers, and war veterans, as well as opposition officials, members of parliament, and city councilors, had gathered outside the Faculty following a call by the students, after the dean, Patrik Drid, had announced that he would come to the Faculty and break the blockade.
The dean tried to enter the faculty through the back entrance with the help of the riot police, but the students prevented him and forced him to leave.
After more than three hours, the police, the Intervention Unit, and the Gendarmerie withdrew.
Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dacic said that the police came at the request of the dean and the administration of the institution and that they used "the minimal means of coercion only to repel attacks against themselves."
Speaking at a press conference, Dacic claimed that the citizens gathered outside the Faculty had attacked the police, pushed and insulted officers, punctured the tires of an ambulance, and that it was only after police had intervened that the dean was able to leave the scene and go to the Clinical Center.
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