Bulgarian Socialist Office Torched
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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Anti-Communist protesters Sunday set fire to the headquarters of the governing Socialist Party, throwing torches through windows and scattering documents in the street.
Police sealed off roads into the capital and announced a national alert.
President Zhelyu Zhelev said the country was in danger of “drifting . . . into a military dictatorship.” He cut short his holiday in the Black Sea city of Varna to deliver a nationally broadcast radio appeal for law and order.
Several firefighters and bystanders near the burned building were apparently injured by falling debris, a doctor on the scene said. One demonstrator said police were clubbing protesters inside.
The crowd outside the building, which had swelled to as many as 10,000 people at one point, had shrunk to about 1,000 by early today.
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