BAKU, Nov 26: Police in Azerbaijan’s capital used truncheons and water cannon on Saturday to break up a protest by opposition supporters complaining of fraud in an election earlier this month.

A reporter at the scene said he saw dozens of protesters with blood coming from head wounds after riot police moved in to disperse a crowd of about 10,000 people in a square on the outskirts of Baku.

Police said the protesters were breaking the law. But the violent scenes may create added discomfort for Ilham Aliyev, the president of the oil-producing state who is already facing Western criticism over the Nov. 6 parliamentary vote.

“A lot of our people have been hurt,” Ali Kerimli, one of the leaders of the main Azadlyq opposition bloc, who was at the protest, said.

“We did not break the law. We were having a peaceful protest which ended when police started to beat up unarmed people.”

In fellow ex-Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine, street protests over disputed elections forced out the ruling elites. But analysts say Azerbaijan’s opposition does not have the popular support to pull off a similar revolution.

Police intervened after demonstrators, who demand the election results be overturned and a new vote held, refused to leave the square when the time the authorities had allocated for their rally ran out.

Most people ran away but sections of the crowd fought back with stones and wooden poles, leading to brief pitched battles in the streets.

“During the rally today I spoke to the opposition leaders warning against any acts of provocation but that was ignored,” the police chief said.—AFP