Summary Dozens of people were wounded in clashes between police and protesters in Ukrainian capital Kiev.
KIEV (AFP) - Dozens of people were wounded in bloody clashes between police and protesters in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Sunday after 200,000 defied new restrictions on protests to rally against President Viktor Yanukovych.
In near apocalyptic scenes close to parliament, several police buses and vehicles were torched by the protesters who hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at the ranks of the security forces. Police responded with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets.
The clashes, the worst in Kiev in recent times, further raised the stakes in the almost two-month standoff between the opposition and Yanukovych which has seen protesters seize control of the main city square in Kiev and municipal buildings.
The White House urged an end to the violence, with National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden saying that Washington was deeply concerned and urging "all sides to immediately de-escalate the situation."
Yanukovych, in his first response to the violence, ordered the setting up of a commission that would hold talks with the opposition but it was unclear if this could in any way help ease the crisis.
Ukrainian police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon in a bid to disperse the hundreds of people who sought to storm police cordons near the Verkhovna Rada parliament and close to the stadium of the legendary Dynamo Kiev football club in central Kiev, witnesses and AFP correspondents said.
In the most violent scenes since the start of the protests in November, demonstrators set five buses and two trucks on fire while the air filled with the stench of tear gas and thick with the smoke from the stun grenades. Medical workers said police had also used rubber bullets.
Their faces covered by scarves or ski masks, many of the protesters wielded sticks or even chains. They were confronted by helmeted riot police equipped with shields who at times adopted a "tortoise" formation to protect themselves from falling projectiles.
Health officials said 24 people were injured and three were hospitalised, while police said more than 70 officers had been hurt.
The interior ministry said four people had already been arrested and charged with mass rioting.
Kiev riot police said the protesters had captured a security services officer and brutally beat him up. He was then rescued but found seriously injured and in a "state of shock".
