The protesters gathered in Szabadság Square, the site of the TV headquarters and memorial, to call for the resignation of the prime minister after it was revealed he had admitted his party had lied to voters. Some of the protesters destroyed the stone tiles around the statue, removed the bronze relief from its side as well as the Soviet sickle and hammer and painted slogans in red paint on its sides.
Protesters also set aflame several cars parked in front of the headquarters of Hungarian Public Television, and, in the early morning hours, they stormed the building and broke into offices and studios on all three floors. Broadcasts were interrupted shortly afterward as staff was evacuated.
Among the protesters on the stairs of the headquarters were far-right extremists and football hooligans, the Austrian Press Agency and Reuters noted in their reports.
Police later cleared the square with a human chain and forced out the last of the protesters from the TV headquarters. Firefighters then extinguished the many fires burning around the building.
On Tuesday afternoon, the smell of smoke still permeated the air in the building. Shattered glass and broken furniture littered the building and everything near the front stairs of the headquarters had been smashed.
Damage to the square alone will add up to tens of millions of forints, District V mayor Pál Steiner told a press conference on Tuesday morning as cleanup work began.
?Last night vandals destroyed our square, vandals used the cobblestones as weapons, vandals used the sun canopies as battering rams,? Steiner said.
He noted that the money for the park?s repair would have to come from funds originally set aside for other developments.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
