Dozens Injured as Armenian Police Use Special Means Against Protesters (Video, Updated)

1:30 am  Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am,) one of the residents of the Sari Tagh neighborhood said that a police stun grenade had fallen on her house. Her three children, all under 7 years old, were injured as a result of the explosion. Two of the kids have been admitted to the intensive care unit of the Nor Nork medical center with severe injuries.

12:30 am Armenia's Health Ministry reports that, according to preliminary data, at least 30 people have been hospitalized with different types of injuries. 

Meanwhile, Davit Sanasaryan, an opposition politician with the Heritage Party, said on his Facebook page that he, along with a number of other wounded, was at the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center in Yerevan's Nor Nork district. "People's eyes have popped out of their sockets, [there are] others with broken arms and legs. My dad has a broken elbow," Sanasaryan wrote.

He also published a photo of a young man named Sayat with a seemingly severe damage to his eye. It subsequently became known that the 17-year-old has lost his eye.

 

10:40 pm At around 10:30 pm Friday, police in Armenia fired tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the cordoned off section of the Khorenatsi street and in the adjacent Sari Tagh neighborhood in support of the Daredevils of Sasun armed group.

The gunmen’s sympathizers initially rallied at Yerevan’s central Freedom Square after news broke out that three members of the armed group had been injured in a shootout with police officers. They soon decided to walk to the street leading to the seized police station and, as they were nearing the Khorenatsi street, the protesters suddenly changed the route of the march, attempting to approach the police building through an adjacent neighborhood. The situation escalated dramatically when police used stun grenades to disperse the crowd.

Currently, the situation in the area remains tense; police are using excessive force to detain the protesters. There are reports of injured people, among them reporters. Ambulances have been seen leaving the area.

Updates to follow.