WARSAW, Poland, July 22 (UPI) -- Polish retailers said they will keep protesting the closure of a Warsaw shopping center following clashes with police that left scores of people injured.
About 60 people were hurt, 20 of them police officers, and at least 12 protesters were arrested Tuesday when police closed the shopping center in downtown Warsaw, officials said Wednesday.
More than 1,000 retailers used rocks and sticks to try to prevent police from evicting them from their stalls. Police stormed the shopping center using tear gas and water cannons but the retailers have not retreated.
The authorities plan to pull down the building and replace it with a modern art museum, Polish Radio said.
The bazaar-style shopping center with retailers selling mainly clothing and footwear has been housed in the building since the fall of communism in 1989.
A Warsaw court's ruling ordered the retailers to leave their stalls by Tuesday. However, the retailers say they will move only when a new building being erected for them is completed in 2011, the report said.
