Drunk Roma Crowd Assaults Police Units in Bulgaria Capital

Several police units had to be summoned to the Krasna Polyana Quarter in Sofia to take control of the situation there. Photo by BGNES

A melee has broken out overnight between Roma and police patrols in the Krasna Polyana Quarter of the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

The incident started shortly before 11 pm when a police patrol close to the Suhodol Street of the Krasna Polyana Quarter was alerted that people from the nearby Roma-populated area had been throwing bottles and rocks at a public transport bus, the BGNES news agency has reported.

The police patrol found the bus traveling on line No. 108, whose driver informed them in person of the incident. At the same moment, however, a group of Roma residents of the nearby homes, who were visibly drunk according to BGNES, showed up and attacked the police patrol wounding one of the police officers on duty.

The patrol managed to repel the attackers but the noise prompted about 100 Roma, including men and women, to come out of their homes nearby and to assault again the policemen throwing rocks at them and at the public transport bus parked nearby.

Five additional police patrols were sent to the spot of the incident, and the police eventually managed to put the situation under control around midnight.

They arrested the initial attacker - a 37-year-old local resident with a sizable criminal record, who was drunk at the time.

A permanent police patrol was left on the spot, and the persons involved in the incident were later interrogated at the local police department.