Bahrain Grand Prix 2012: clashes between police and demonstrators draw closer to the circuit "We are here because we want our freedom, and look what happens to us," said demonstrator Hassan Jaffer, 22, as tear gas canisters bounced towards him from the police lines. The government is trying to hold this Formula One race to say everything is OK in Bahrain, but it isn't. It began at a roundabout next to an anonymous looking-suburban shopping mall, where the local branch of Costa Coffee has become the unlikely HQ for many of Bahrain's pro-democracy activists. In the middle of the roundabout, protesters had gathered a 10-foot wide pile of CS gas canisters, smoke grenades and shotgun cartridges - fired, they said, by police during clashes in the area in previous days. The march then moved down a palm-lined boulevard, men on the right side and a long column of women clad in traditional all-encompassing abayas on the left. "Many of us here are just teenagers," said demonstrator Jumana Qassab, 16, who said she was arrested while sitting a maths exam last year after taking part in protests. She spent a day in jail before being released. We are not against Formula One, but they shouldn't be here now while people are dying and being denied their basic human rights. Having marched up and down a highway with loudspeakers blaring, the protesters began dispersing peacefully after about an hour, but trouble flared as youths attempted to head for the city centre. Some claimed they were simply trying to head home. Activists said that at least three people were arrested and three more wounded by shotgun pellets. Further demonstrations are expected Saturday and on Sunday, with demonstrators hinting that they may try to disrupt the race itself by posing as Formula One spectators.