"My Daughter Started Screaming: It Stings in the Eyes, It Hurts!"

Residents of Lebyazhy told how the Nazis sprayed gas in the face of a child.

There were arrests in the Lebyazhy micro-district of Minsk yesterday. The security forces broke up the chain of solidarity. One of the policemen sprayed gas from a can, after which people had to call an ambulance for a five-year-old child. The tut.by portal found the girl's mother and eyewitnesses.

Yesterday in the Lebyazhy micro-district, there was already a traditional courtyard disco. After that, a chain of solidarity was formed. Unidentified persons arrived without identification marks, in civilian clothes, with body armor and truncheons. They detained several people. The security forces in olive uniforms also detained people.

Eyewitnesses say that they approached the police cars standing there to find out what the quarter's residents were detained for. Then, there was another incident: when leaving, one of the policemen sprayed pepper gas, after which people had to call an ambulance for the child.

It happened at about 21.00 in the parking lot of Peramozhtsau Avenue, not far from house No. 127. The moment with the spraying the gas was also caught on the video (in the video - at the 1st minute of the 21st second).

Aliaksandra is the mother of a five-year-old girl for whom an ambulance was called. She tells what happened.

- People were standing, asking why the police did not protect us from the unknown. The policemen were in two UAZs. Between their two cars, there was a mother with a baby in a stroller. The driver of the car, which was standing behind, began to drive forward - probably, he did not see that there was a stroller. People got angry, began to shout: "Where are you going?" At that moment, the policeman opened the window and sprayed pepper gas into the air. People next to the car were not hurt. My child was with a dog in a green area, ten meters, or even more, away from the car. It looks like the gas was brought there by the wind. My daughter began to shout: "It stings in the eyes, it hurts!" People advised me to call an ambulance. The eye was red, but the child was already feeling better by the time the ambulance arrived. They examined her, but no help was needed - they let her go home. They advised contacting an ophthalmologist if the condition suddenly worsens.

Spraying gas in Lebyazhy was confirmed by the editors and other residents of the quarter. Among them is Tacciana, that mother who was near the police car.

- At that moment, my mother, an elderly person, was with the stroller. She maneuvered near the police cars. Everything was next to the sidewalk, near the place where the cars are parked. When the policeman jumped into the car, he rushed forward. He stuck his hand out of the window and sprayed the gas. Everyone was afraid that he would run into the stroller. Fortunately, everything is all right with our child - thank God, he slowed down. I ran up to my mother and the child and took the stroller aside.

Another local resident, Darja, is one of those detained yesterday in Lebyazhy. The girl knows that six people were brought from the quarter to the police department.

- My mother, me, and another woman did not even have time to reach the chain of solidarity. The security forces, people in olive uniforms, showed up. The three of us were detained. Then, on Lesya Ukrainka Street, three men from the micro-district were put in our car. All of us were taken to the Frunzenski District Department of Internal Affairs. Another man was detained, but he turned out to be drunk - he was simply issued a fine and released on the spot.

In the Frunzenski district police department, Darja's mother felt bad. The police offered to call an ambulance, but the family refused. Then, both mother and daughter were sent home.

- The third woman was not allowed with us. Three men also stayed with the police. They were transported to the Central District Department of Internal Affairs, and then to the detention center in Akrestsina Street. We were told that today, most likely, there will be a trial.

The tut.by portal appealed to the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs of the Minsk City Executive Committee, but a comment on what happened yesterday in Lebyazhy has not yet been received.