’Rising tensions among refugees’

Following a hunger strike over conditions in the Harmanli camp in southern Bulgaria, the refugee centre in Sofia was rocked by a riot in the wake of the death of a Syrian resident, reports Sega.

The 35-year-old man arrived in the capital with his wife and three children complaining on several occasions that he was suffering from chest pains, but by the time doctors arrived at the facility, he had already died from a suspected heart attack.

Other Syrian residents threw stones at the ambulance and police who were called to assist the centre’s security staff. Since the beginning of the summer, some 10,000 people, mainly Syrians displaced by the war, have illegally entered Bulgaria. Authorities in Sofia have insisted that the country only has facilities to accommodate half of this number.