Police in Azerbaijan used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters after they torched a local governor's house Thursday, in a rare outburst of unrest in the tightly controlled state, reports and an eyewitness said. Locals in the ex-Soviet state's northern city of Quba set fire to the governor's house in outrage at a recent televised remark that they deemed to be insulting, an eyewitness told AFP over the phone from Quba.
Both the governor Rauf Habibov and Azerbaijan's Transport Minister Zia Mamedov apologised before protesters for the remarks, which alleged that Quba residents sold their property to Azerbaijanis from other regions to get rich. But a crowd of thousands insisted the governor must resign and then torched his house. Police then used tear gas to disperse them, the witness said. Azerbaijan's APA news agency reported that several protesters were arrested after clashes with police that left several people injured on both sides.
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