Hundreds of students marched through the Serbian countryside in late January as they took anti-graft protests north to the city of Novi Sad. They reportedly planned to blockade three bridges over the River Danube.
The protest date marked three months since concrete construction at a railway station collapsed in Novi leaving 15 people dead.
Protests began popping up against suspected corruption in construction contracts as a result of that collapse. It has developed into a serious challenge to the country’s leader, President Aleksandar Vucic.
Meanwhile in Belgrade, a driver rammed a car into a silent protest on January 31, injuring two doctors. Media reports say both hit their heads on the pavement and are being examined.
The incident was the third vehicle ramming event and happened in downtown Belgrade during a planned 15 minutes of silence which was to be observed daily throughout Serbia to commemorate when the canopy collapsed at the railway station in Novi Sad.
Pro-government thugs had previously attacked the protesters, many of them students, twice ramming cars into the crowds. Two people were seriously injured in the previous attacks.