After a third night of protests in Belarus, the interior ministry says police fired back with live bullets when they came under attack in the southwestern city of Brest. Demonstrators with metal rods targeted officers and the police opened fire in self-defence, the ministry said. Clashes were also reported in Minsk and other cities, after main opposition figure Svetlana Tikhanovskaya fled.

A BBC crew was attacked by police, who have been accused of brutality. The protests erupted hours after Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was awarded victory in Sunday’s presidential vote, which has been condemned by the EU as “neither free nor fair”. Mr Lukashenko won 80% of Sunday’s vote, according to election officials, but there were widespread allegations of vote rigging and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Belarusians had shown “the desire for democratic change” in the election campaign.(BBC)…[+]