video transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: Riot police in the Polish capital used truncheons on Sunday to break up a crowd of right-wing extremists pelting them with firecrackers and lumps of concrete after a parade to mark the national holiday turned violent. Thousands of police had earlier lined the streets of Warsaw to try to stop right-wing nationalists and radical left-wing groups from using the independence day holiday as an opportunity to fight each other. It was the second year the celebrations have degenerated into violence, underlining the deep gulf between those who want a conservative, religious society that rejects foreign influence and those who want Poland to join the European mainstream. As demonstrators gathered for the right-wing rally, young men with their faces covered by scarves chanted nationalist slogans and railed against supposed Jewish conspiracies. The fighting started when some of the right-wing protesters threw firecrackers and projectiles at police in riot gear who had cordoned off the area. Police responded by beating protesters with truncheons, forcing them to disperse into nearby streets. Some demonstrators tore off chunks of concrete at a construction site to use as missiles.