QUBA, Azerbaijan, March 1 (UPI) -- Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets Thursday in northern Azerbaijan to protest alleged corruption by a district official.
About 10,000 people joined the demonstration in Quba, about 100 miles north of Baku, Russia's RIA Novosti new agency reported. The city is the capital of the Quba region.
RIA Novosti cited a local news Web site, Contact.az, that said police made about 200 arrests.
Contact.az said the protest turned violent.
The house of District Administrator Rauf Khabibov reportedly was set on fire and protesters blocked firefighters from reaching the building.
The protest was triggered by online video showing real estate allegedly purchased by Khabibov with money taken from the public treasury and by Khabibov's description of his critics as "traitors."
President Ilkham Aliyev called a meeting of senior law enforcement officers Thursday in Baku.
