Kosovo police use tear gas to disperse opposition protesters

A fire broke out at the Kosovo government building in Pristina after angered protesters pelted it with petrol bombs, according to photos and reports from the scene.

On Saturday, police used tear gas to break up crowds of anti-government protesters who threw Molotov cocktails at the government building.

Special police forces walk with batons and shields during a protest in Kosovo’s capital Pristina. Two dozen protesters were arrested and others gathered into the evening, some still throwing fireworks at police.

Kosovo police member try to extinguish fire from molotov cocktails thrown by supporters of the opposition during a violent clashes in Kosovo capital Pristina on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016.

The EU office in Kosovo condemned the “spiral of violence” and called for “calm and renouncement of violence” as the way forward for Kosovo.

Kosovo, which is majority Albanian, declared independence from Serbia with Western support in 2008, nearly a decade after North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air strikes drove out Serbian security forces accused of killing and expelling civilians from the ethnic Albanian majority during a counter-insurgency war. More than 100 countries have recognized Kosovo’s independence, though it isn’t accepted by Serbia and Russian Federation.

Several thousand ethnic Albanian opposition supporters have held a protest asking for Kosovo’s government to resign, arguing the executive has broken the country’s constitution in reaching deals with Serbia and Montenegro previous year. “We are seeking free elections to be organized immediately, because they no longer have the right to govern Kosovo”, said Fatmir Limaj, the leader of the Initiative for Kosovo political party.