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Omon riot police officers injured while dispersing protest in Urals

Reinforced police patrols were brought in, too
Screenshot Russia 24
Screenshot Russia 24

MOSCOW, November 25 (Itar-Tass) – A total of eight officers of the Omon riot police units received injuries during dispersal of a crowd near the gate of a corrective penal colony in the town of Kopeisk, Chelyabinsk region in the Urals, the press center of the Russian Interior Ministry said Sunday.

A group of inmates of the colony issued a range of demands to the directorate, and several dozen relatives and former inmates gathered by the gate of the corrective institution Saturday, November 24.

Senior officials of the Chelyabinsk region department of the Interior went to Kopeisk immediately to organize ”prevention of encroachments on law and order right on the spot.”

Reinforced police patrols were brought in, too.

Several hours later, a greater part of relatives of the convicts left the territory adjoining the colony but several drunk young people remained there. They encroached on law and order, shouted obscenities and hurled empty glass bottles at the police.

“As a result of efforts to cut the action short, eight Omon riot police officers received injuries and another 38 people were detained and taken to police stations in Kopeisk and in the regional capital Chelyabisnk, where administrative protocols on their offenses were filled out,” the ministry said.

The press service denied reports in a number of mass media that the Omon had beaten the protesters up but it said that “a departmental inquiry into them” had been ordered.

At the time of reporting, police and officers of the regional department of the Federal Services for the Penitentiaries had firm control of the situation on the territories adjoining the colony.