In pictures: Violent clashes in Kiev

Violent clashes have broken out in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, as about 10,000 people converged on President Leonid Kuchma's offices, accusing him of involvement in the murder of a prominent journalist, Georgy Gongadze.

Earlier Ukrainian police clashed with a few hundred demonstrators as Mr Kuchma laid a wreath at the statue of a popular national poet, Taras Shevchenko.

Opposition activists break the barrier at the presidential administration building

A protester throws a smoke bomb at the police cordon protecting the presidential offices

A girl is arrested and pushed from a wall surrounding the National University Building

Plain clothes policemen tackle protesters near the monument to the poet Shevchenko

A man recovers after being hit by riot police

Opposition leader Taras Chornovil burns a ribbon laid at the monument by President Kuchma

A girl puts flowers in the shields of riot police surrounding Shevchenko's monument

A woman cries as violence erupts near the poet's monument