KIEV, August 06. /ITAR-TASS/. Independence Square in Kiev city centre - centre of confrontation and mass unrest in late 2013 and early 2014 - has become a real threat to citizens and guests of Ukraine’s capital, an Interior Ministry official said on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) has become a place today where fringe politicians, criminals, antisocial elements, alcoholics and drug addicts have found shelter,” said Zoryan Shkiryak, an adviser to the interior minister.

“Today, this place and those who are there pose a direct threat to Kiev residents and guests of the capital,” he warned.

As an example, Shkiryak named the detention of several dozen people who “armed with guns, grenades, truncheons and cold steel weapons came to wrestle a restaurant away from its owner in favour of another owner”.

"Because of constant fights, scandals and beatings of journalists, Maidan has become a dangerous zone for citizens’ lives, he said.

“No doubt we should put an end to this,” Shkiryak said. “I think the case with those bandits, committing outright crimes under the guise of the ideals of the Maidan, should dot all the i’s.

“We will try to explain intelligently to people that it cannot go on this way,” he added.