Armenians resume energy price protests, defying police

Thousands of Armenians staged a second day of protests on Tuesday in the capital Yerevan against  hike in electricity prices, defying police who used water cannon to try to disperse them.

Police detained about 200 protesters but a senior police official said they were later released. Opposition parties condemned the police actions, which have raised social tensions in the cash-strapped southern Caucasus nation of 3.2 million.

On Tuesday evening, the demonstrators, many of them young activists with no affiliation to any political party, resumed a sit-in protest near the presidential palace. Our demands remains the same - cancellation of the decision to raise electricity prices. Our protest will be exclusively peaceful and not directed against the authorities or the police," said one activist who declined to give his name.

In Monday's protest rally 14 demonstrators and 11 police were injured when riot police stopped a crowd of around 5,000 marching on the presidential palace. They then staged an overnight sit-in protest, blocking a central boulevard.

Armenians are angry over a decision by the state regulatory commission last week to increase the electricity tariff by up to 22% from August 1.