Riot police in Minsk disperse gathering commemorating protester who died during demonstrations

Riot police in Minsk have begun dispersing people who gathered to lay flowers at the site where a protester died during last night’s demonstrations on Pushkin Square, reports the independent Belarusian outlet Euroradio. 

Riot police came to the square around 4:00 p.m. local time, reports RFE/RL’s Belarusian service, Radio Svaboda. 

According to the outlet Onliner, several hundred people have gathered at the square.

During the night of August 10–11, Belarusian police officials reported that a protester had been killed during the demonstrations on Pritytskogo Street in Minsk. The man in question was allegedly holding an “unidentified explosive device,” which went off in his hands and killed him, police officials said. This is the first officially reported fatality during the protests and subsequent clashes with law enforcement officers that followed the end of the presidential elections in Belarus on August 9.