Protesters threw flares and red paint at the city hall building in the Serbian city of Novi Sad on Tuesday, angry over the collapse last week of a concrete canopy at the train station , which killed 14 people. The police responded by firing tear gas canisters.
Protesters surrounded the building in central Novi Sad, smashing windows and throwing stones and other objects despite calls from organizers for calm. Special police troops were deployed inside the building.
Some angry, masked protesters, suspected of being football hooligans close to the populist government, tried to enter the building and deliver their demands so that those responsible for the collapse of the canopy are brought to justice .
Serbia’s autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic said police were “showing restraint” but also issued a warning that “horrific and violent protests are underway.”
“People of Serbia, please do not think that violence is allowed,” he said on X, formerly Twitter. “All those who participated in the incidents will be punished.”
Protest organizers said they wanted to enter the room and present their demands.
Miran Pogacar, an opposition activist, said: “A window can be repaired but we cannot bring back 14 lives. People are angry. Serbia will not tolerate this.”
Bojan Pajtic, an opposition politician, said he believed the violent incidents had been deliberately stirred up by provocateurs, a tactic previously used in Serbia to derail peaceful anti-government protests and present opposition demonstrators as enemies of the nation.
Thousands of people initially marched through the city’s streets to demand that top officials resign over the deadly exterior roof collapse last Friday, including President Vucic and Prime Minister Milos Vucevic.
Protesters first gathered outside the train station where they observed a minute of silence for the victims while organizers read their names. The crowd responded by chanting: “stop the gang” and “the thieves.”
The protest began peacefully, but some demonstrators later threw plastic bottles and bricks at the headquarters of Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party and daubed posters of the Serbian president and prime minister with red paint – a message indicating that They have blood on their hands.
Protesters removed most of the red, blue and white Serbian national flags that were apparently hanging at the headquarters to prevent an attack. This sparked an angry response from the president.
“Our Serbian tricolor was destroyed, hidden and taken away by all those who do not love Serbia,” Vucic wrote on Serbia more than us, the honest citizens of this country.
Critics of Serbia’s populist government have blamed the disaster on rampant corruption in the Balkan country, a lack of transparency and shoddy work during renovations to the station building, which were part of a broader rail deal with Chinese state-owned enterprises.
The accident happened without warning. Surveillance camera footage showed the imposing canopy on the exterior wall of the station building crashing into people sitting below on benches or entering and exiting.
Those responsible have promised to fully account for their actions and, in the face of pressure, Serbia’s construction minister tendered his resignation on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said more than 40 people have already been questioned as part of an investigation into what happened. Many in Serbia, however, doubt that justice will be served if populists firmly control the judiciary and police.
Opposition parties behind Tuesday’s protest said they were also demanding Vucevic’s resignation and for documents to be made public listing all companies and individuals involved.
Among the victims was a 6-year-old girl. Those injured in the roof collapse remained in serious condition Tuesday.
The station has been renovated twice in recent years. Authorities insisted the canopy was not part of the renovation work, suggesting that was why it had collapsed, but giving no explanation as to why it had not been included.
Novi Sad station was built in 1964, while the renovated station was inaugurated by Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, more than two years ago, as a major milestone in a proposed line fast train between Belgrade and Budapest.
