Traders and security officers clash in downtown Warsaw (1st Lead)

Jul 21, 2009, 14:00 GMT

Warsaw - At least 30 people were injured when traders and security officers clashed in downtown Warsaw on Tuesday over the planned closure of a Polish market to make way for a metro line.

The injured, among them six police officers, were taken to the hospital, broadcaster TVN 24 reported.

A bailiff tried to enter the bazaar-style shopping centre on Tuesday morning, but was pushed back when tear gas filled the entrance, local media reported.

The traders had barricaded themselves in overnight, armed with tear gas, the Polish Press Agency reported. They fought back with streams from fire extinguishers when security officers tried to enter the complex.

The bailiff made it inside the building as the clash stretched into a seventh hour. Football hooligans threw rocks at the facility as a crowd formed at a nearby park.

The traders and their supporters meanwhile blocked traffic on a main street running through the heart of the city.

Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz told a press conference that the traders have been occupying the market illegally since January. The city had made numerous offers to secure them another locale, she added.

The traders say closing the hall puts 2,000 out of work in a time of financial crisis. The city has offered another location, but the the traders want to remain downtown until the new premises is ready in 2012.

City officials say the space is needed to launch work next year on a second metro line and that the area would later house an art museum.