Anti-government protesters clashed with Hungarian police yesterday as political tension erupted into violence on the anniversary of the country's bloody 1956 revolution.
More than 20 people were injured as police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of demonstrators, some hurling stones and waving nationalist flags, as they marched towards parliament, where President Mary McAleese was among dozens of dignitaries commemorating the uprising.
Protesters even drove a Soviet-era tank from an open-air exhibition in the city centre, only for it to stop within a few yards as police dragged out the driver.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw the tank driving off," said Janos Nadasdi, a musician. "It was crazy there, pretty scary. I was just glad to get away."
Thousands of riot police flooded Budapest to quell the riots, as Hungarians marked 50 years since their revolt against Soviet domination was crushed by the Red Army.
At least 2,500 Hungarians died in the 1956 fighting, and 200,000 more fled the country for the West.
Helicopters buzzed over Budapest all day, amid fears of violence from far-right groups involved in two nights of rioting last month, when tens of thousands of people rallied to demand the resignation of the Socialist prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany.
Police cleared protesters away from parliament in the early hours of yesterday, before Mrs McAleese and other heads of state gathered to lay white roses at a monument to the 1956 uprising, which ended in defeat and execution for its leaders.
Mr Gyurcsany laid his flower next to that of President Laszlo Solyom, who urged parliament to consider ousting the Socialist leader after his admission to lying about the dire state of the economy to win re-election sparked Hungary's worst protests since 1956.
Mr Solyom urged Hungarians to unite around the memory of 1956, but his appeal went unheeded as the main right-wing Fidesz party boycotted state-backed ceremonies and held a huge rally of its own.
"The current confusion is because of one man, who has driven the country into a political and a moral crisis by misleading the people," said Fidesz leader Viktor Orban, warning against violence but calling Mr Gyurcsany's government "illegitimate".
By evening, tear gas hung thick in the air above police units that patrolled the city, arresting groups of rioters and keeping major roads open to allow visiting heads of state to return to the airport.
Before her departure, Mrs McAleese called the official commemoration events "a moving tribute to the memory of those courageous men and women who were brutally sacrificed in the course of the revolution or in the terrible reprisals that followed".