Scores arrested in Belgrade after anti-gay riot

Anti-gay protesters have fought running battles with police in an effort to disrupt a Gay Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia - the first in the city since 2001.

Rioters threw petrol bombs and stones at armed police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, reports BBC News.

The office of the ruling Democratic Party was briefly set on fire, and at least one shot was fired. Calm was eventually restored but more than 100 people, mostly police, were injured, with another 100 arrested.

Sunday's march was the first Gay Pride parade in Serbia since a 2001 event was broken up in violent clashes provoked by far-right extremists.

Before the march, the head of the EU mission in Serbia, Vincent Degert, addressed around 1,000 gay activists and their supporters who gathered at a park in downtown Belgrade surrounded by riot police and armoured vehicles.

"We are here to celebrate the values of tolerance, freedom of expression and assembly," Mr Degert told the crowd.

While the Gay Pride parade was moving though the city, several hundred protesters began chanting at those taking part as they tried to get close to the march.

"The hunt has begun," the AFP news agency reported them as saying. "Death to homosexuals."

Reports told of gangs of skinheads roaming the streets, throwing petrol bombs and setting off firecrackers as police battled to hold them back.

Thousands of police had sealed off central Belgrade to protect the event.

While the march took place in a heavily-protected area in and around Manjez park, violence flared at several points further afield in central Belgrade.