Left: Riot police arrest protesters during an anti-government protest in Budapest yesterday. Police fired rubber bullets on Monday to try to disperse anti-government protesters marching towards parliament on the 50th anniversary of Hungary's uprising against Soviet rule, a witness said. - Reuters

BUDAPEST (Reuters):

Hungarian police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of anti-government protesters yesterday, marring commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the country's 1956 uprising against Soviet rule.

Police also used water cannon and some protesters lobbed stones and other missiles at them. The ambulance service said that 20-25 people had been injured, although no one was seriously hurt. One policeman was stabbed in the hand.

As police pushed the crowd of mostly far-right protesters back towards a rally by the main right of centre Fidesz opposition and further away from parliament, demonstrators seized a Soviet-era T-34 tank - on show for the commemorations - and drove it at police.

"The whole crowd started cheering. The police started firing tear gas, then the tank stopped," Reuters cameraman Fedja Grulovic said.

Reuters reporters said police had fired hundreds of tear gas rounds and used mounted police to clear protesters from the streets and that paving stones had been thrown at the lines of police in riot gear.

There has been more than a month of demonstrations in the run-up to the anniversary following the admission by Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurc-sany in a leaked speech that he lied about the economy to win national elections in April.

Not quitting

Gyurcsany has defied calls for him to quit, and backed by his Socialists and the Free Democrat parliamentary allies won a vote of confidence to carry on with his tough economic policies.

In parliament, the prime minister said Hungarians in 1956 had no choice but to rebel, and the country, which held its first free elections in 1990 and joined the European Union in 2004, was now a modern, democratic state.

"Despite the often justified disappointment and discontent, the majority of Hungarians believe that parliamentary democracy is the most suited to express people's will and to create law and give a programme to a free Hungary," he said.