Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/LIMA: Dozens of Peruvians were wounded after tensions flared again on Friday night as local police clashed with protesters in anti-government demonstrations in the country.
In the capital Lima, police used tear gas to repel demonstrators throwing glass bottles and stones as fires burned in the streets.
Interior Minister Vicente Romero said that in the country’s southern Puno region, some 1,500 protesters attacked the police station in Ilave.
Romero said the police station in Zepita, Puno, was also set on fire.
50 wounded in Peru chaos
The health authorities in Ilave reported eight patients hospitalized with wounds, including broken legs, arms, eye contusions, and punctured abdomens as the chaos exacerbates across the country.
According to a report from Peru’s ombudsman, 58 people had been wounded nationwide in demonstrations by late Friday afternoon.
The unrest followed a day of turmoil, one of Lima’s historic buildings burned to the ground as President Dina Boluarte vowed to get tougher on “vandals.”
Officials described the destruction of a building, a near-century-old mansion in Lima, as a loss of a “monumental asset.” Authorities are investigating the causes.
Romero on Friday claimed the blaze was “duly planned and arranged.”
Thousands of protesters descended on Lima that week, calling for change and angered by protests’ mounting death toll, which officially stood at forty-five on Friday.
