‘11 injured during Sofia demonstration’

Eleven people have been injured during an anti-government demonstration held in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia on Monday, officials say.

Sofia police chief Valery Yordanov said five policemen and six protesters were wounded as clashes erupted between protesters and riot police.

Thousands of people took to streets of the capital and several other cities across the country to protest over high electricity bills.

Yordanov also said that police officers arrested eleven protesters for hooliganism and vandalism, after more than 1,500 people threw stones at parliament building in Sofia.

Riot police then deployed to disperse the angry protesters from area around parliament. At least six police cars were damaged and several shop windows were crashed.

Local media said protesters torched four vehicles in Plovdiv city. The vehicles belonged to the Austrian company EVN, which increased electricity prices.

On Sunday, thousands of protesters held demonstrations in Sofia, demanding the expulsion of the Czech Republic’s CEZ, Energo-Pro, and Austria’s EVN, the three foreign-controlled power distributors that control the local market.

The protest prompted Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to announce the dismissal of the country’s finance minister.

Power distributors explained the increase in the prices with a longer accounting period because of holidays, an unusually cold weather this winter, and a recent electricity-price rise. Bulgaria increased the costs of electricity by 13 percent last July.

As residents of the European Union’s poorest member, Bulgarians have to allocate a big part of their monthly incomes to electricity bills, especially in the winter.