The situation has put pressure on Serbia's increasingly autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic, who has refused the protesters' demand to call an early parliamentary election.

Serbia's police used teargas and crowd control vehicles on Friday evening in Belgrade to disperse anti-government protesters who threw firecrackers and flares at police officers in what is seen as a major escalation of the nine-month-long protests.

Police threw multiple rounds of tear gas and charged at the demonstrators who hurled bottles, rocks and flares at them.