The uprising of tens of thousands of young Serbs outraged by corruption and violations of civil liberties poses a growing challenge to President Aleksandar Vučić.
A student who demonstrated against the government was taken to Belgrade hospital after being hit by a car on Thursday.
Images posted on social networks show the young woman on the roof of the vehicle crossing the crowd and falling from the back of the vehicle as it drives away.
Authorities say the 20-year-old suffered severe trauma in the crash. The driver, aged 38, was found and apprehended.
Since the incident, other students have responded by calling for a “total blockade” on social media.
The demonstration in which the woman was injured is the latest in a long series of protests against the Serbian government by students outraged by various overlapping issues, including repression civil liberties and the fatal collapse, on November 1, of the concrete canopy of the train station Novi Sadin the north of the country – a disaster widely blamed on corruption and negligence in public procurement.
The ensuing student strike led to classes being suspended for weeks. Some protesters say they have been victims of interference and harassment by authorities, including, in some cases, physical violence.
The president Aleksandar Vučić accused the students of receiving money from the West for their protests, while pro-government media published the personal data of some protesters, which protesters said would not have been possible without the involvement of the country’s secret services, the BIA.
Nonetheless, the student protesters have received significant popular support, and their rallies continue to attract tens of thousands of people.
Vučić called the protesters “stupid”, saying in a television interview last Sunday that “they live in their own world“.
“They are not my problem, but I blame those who push them into all this. I mean their teachers“, he told the local channel Pink TV.
Serbian prosecutors have charged 13 people, including a former minister and several civil servants, over the collapse of the station canopy. However, students vowed to continue their protests amid doubts about the independence of the authorities’ investigation.
