Students, farmers and representatives of environmental organizations are preparing for a second day of protests in downtown Sofia Thursday.

The protest rally is scheduled again for 11:00 am and will be held in front of the Parliament building. Students expect that the Wednesday violence would not be repeated as they hope to eliminate actions and provocations that could trigger a strong police response.

Kuncho Dragnev from the college student organization Union for Development and Social Control over Student Dormitories and Cafeterias stated that the Wednesday riot brought the country back by 20 years.

"We believe the Police yesterday were prepared to exert violence on people. We appealed to them numerous times to isolate the provocateurs - they were on the left side of the Parliament building. About 20 masked people easily distinguished from the rest. The Police did not do anything to subdue them, but later attacked even the protest organizers," Dragnev said.

Adrian Tsakonski, the well known leader of the Bulgarian milk producers and organizer of numerous farmers' protests, has also confirmed their participation in the Thursday rally.

Representatives of student, environmental, rural, retiree, parent, youth, medical and other organizations gathered Wednesday in front of the building of the Bulgarian Parliament in Sofia to demand the resignation of the Cabinet and voice many other requests.

The violence was allegedly triggered by football fans trying to remove guarding fences and throwing them at the Police. Some policemen have been injured by flying rocks, bottles and homemade bombs, often used during football matches.

After an order issued by the Sofia Deputy Mayor, Police in riot gear used batons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators from the square in front of the Parliament and pushed them into adjacent streets. According to eyewitness' reports, the Police "literally smashed" the rally.

The demonstrators then broke into several groups. One of them marched in the direction of the National Palace of Culture while the other walked towards one of Sofia's main thoroughfares "Tsarigradsko Shosse", and blocked traffic in the area of "Orlov Most" (Eagle Bridge). The Police managed to open the road half an hour later.

The area near the Parliament remained closed and fenced off all through the night with heavy police presence.

About 170 people (22 minors among them) have been arrested, there are reports of damaged police cars and public transportation buses and broken store windows while hospitals say 19 people have reported to their emergency rooms to be treated from injuries sustained during the Police beatings. Many more are believed to have been hurt by Police brutality.