Hundreds of people have been injured after a massive anti-corruption rally in Bucharest, spearheaded by expats calling on the government to resign, turned violent, forcing riot police to use water cannons and tear gas.What eventually grew into a massive, 60,000-strong rally began at noon, when roughly 200 expats gathered to protest corruption, low wages and attempts by the PSD to weaken the judiciary. At least 65 people were hospitalized after police used tear gas, water cannons and truncheons against some of the 11,000 people that had gathered in the Romanian capital to protest corruption and demand the resignation of key government figures. WATCH: At least 21 killed in Iran’s anti-government protests

Earlier Saturday, Romanian riot police defended their use of force at Friday night protest in which 70 people, including 11 riot police, had to be taken to the hospital. About a thousand officers in riot gear intervened to clear the crowds assembled in a central square outside the main government building after some protesters tried to break through the police cordon. He added: “But things quickly turned bad: they fired tear gas at us, it was unbearable.”

Another demonstrator, Madalina, 22, said of Friday’s clashes: “We couldn’t breathe and we had to seek shelter in the surrounding streets.”

Klaus Iohannis, Romania’s centre-right president and critic of the government, said he “strongly condemned the brutal intervention of the police, which was disproportionate to the attitude of most demonstrators” but added that “any form of violence is unacceptable”.
452 people are injured in clashes between protesters and police during an anti-government meeting in Bucharest, Romania.