Romanian anti-gay protesters clash with police

BUCHAREST, June 3 (Reuters) Ten people were injured and dozens detained when militant protesters trying to break up a gay rights march clashed with riot police in the Romanian capital today, police said.

Hundreds of activists marched through downtown Bucharest to protest against discrimination in the largely conservative society and call for the legalisation of same-sex marriages.

But the parade was disrupted by more than a thousand protesters, who threw eggs, stones and plastic bottles at the activists, who were shielded by police in trucks.

Some protesters, including Orthodox nuns and a priest, carried crosses and chanted ''Romania does not need you''. Some protesters clashed with police, who fired tear gas and used batons to hold them at bay. They detained 51 people.

''Romania has problems with accepting any minorities,'' Octav Popescu, one of the parade organisers told Realitatea TV.

Homosexuality is legal in Romania, which hopes to join the European Union in 2007, but the public largely accepts the powerful Orthodox church's view that it is a sin and a disease.

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