FIJI: SCUFFLES DEVELOP OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT WHERE PRIME MINISTER IS BEING HELD HOSTAGE AFTER ATTEMPTED COUP

Record ID: 677499

  • Title: FIJI: SCUFFLES DEVELOP OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT WHERE PRIME MINISTER IS BEING HELD HOSTAGE AFTER ATTEMPTED COUP
  • Date: 28th May 2000
  • Summary: (REUTERS) MV SOLDIERS CONTINUE FIRING/ APTN CAMERAMAN LED AWAY SLV GOVERNMENT SOLDIERS RETREAT/ COUP SUPPORTERS ADVANCE THROWING STONES (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 12th June 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SUVA, FIJI
  • Country: Fiji
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2OPLEYKYHNWK0VUQBFBASOBKY
  • Story Text: A television cameraman and two soldiers were shot and injured outside Fiji's parliament during a scuffle between soldiers and gunmen holding the prime minister hostage.
    The three men were shot after a group of unarmed supporters of coup leader George Speight began wrestling with soldiers at a roadblock outside the thatch-roofed parliament complex on Saturday (May 27).
    The supporters pulled at the barrels of the soldiers' guns and threw rocks and other debris.
    The soldiers appeared to fire some shots accidentally during the scuffle.
    They then fired warning shots into the air and into the ground.
    The injured cameraman, who works for Associated Press Television News, was wounded in the arm, as was one of the soldiers.The other soldier was wounded in the leg.
    Speight, a Fijian businessman, has been holding the country's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, hostage along with about 30 others in the parliament complex since May 19.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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