Bulgaria Police Arrest 30 after Second Night of Bulgaria-Roma Protests

At least 30 people have been detained in Bulgaria's capital Sofia after the second night of protests that began Saturday evening over loud music played in the Orlandovtsi neighborhood.

Police say the main goal of security forces now is to prevent further incidents, apart from boosting security in a neighborhood that has been recently marked by Bulgaria-Roma tensions.

Members of the ethnic Roma community were wounded on Sunday night as protesters tried to find their way through a police cordon and attack Roma houses in the neighborhood.

A police chief told the Bulgarian National Radio on Monday that a third evening of escalation is expected as well, given the participation of citizens with far-right views in the demonstrations.

Football fans have also been part of the events, and the Interior Ministry in Sofia claims people who normally take part in fights after football matches are expected to arrive near the neighborhood on Monday.

In the words of Mladen Marinov, who heads the Sofia police directorate, complaints of music played loudly are not uncommon in other parts of Sofia, with dozens received by police from across the capital every day.

But the latest development comes against the backdrop of clashes in the village of Garmen, Southwestern Bulgaria, where a brawl over loud music grew into a days-long Bulgaria-Roma protest.

Garmen's ethnic Bulgarian majority demanded that illegal buildings of Roma people in the Kremikovtsi neighborhood, where the music came from and in which many hundreds of ethnic Roma citizens are dwelling without having the land or the buildings.

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