(AP) Police in Cyprus say they have arrested 21 people and used tear gas and a water cannon after a group of Greek Cypriots wearing hoods and brandishing bats tried to attack protesting Syrians in a small village that has been a hotbed of tensions between locals and migrants.
Police said Tuesday parallel protests by some 250 Syrians and an equal number of Greek Cypriots in the village of Chloraka in the island’s southwest Monday evening degenerated into violence, as smaller numbers of protesters from both groups began setting fire to garbage bins and also torching a building’s fence.
Anti-riot squad officers managed to keep the two groups separated, while one officer suffered second-degree burns to his hand from a Molotov cocktail hurled by rioters.
