Bulgarian police have arrested Roma clan leader and suspected crime boss Kiril Rashkov after a series of violent demonstrations that saw the country's worst unrest in more than a decade, Bulgarian police said.
Rashkov has been charged with making threats to carry out a murder, police said. It was not clear who he had threatened.
Trouble began when rumors spread that Angel Petrov, 19, had been knocked over and killed by a minibus driven by one of Rashkov's relatives in Katunitsa village, near Bulgaria's second city of Plovdiv.
Protesters - including nationalists and skinheads - then burned houses and cars belonging to Rashkov's family. Some 170 people were arrested.
Bulgaria's chief prosecutor has urged the arrest of people who incite racial and ethnic tension.
The European Commission has expressed its concern over the anti-Roma demonstrations in Bulgaria and says it is monitoring the situation, EU Commission press secretary Matthew Newman said on Wednesday.
Local police detained hundreds on Wednesday as attacks took place on Roma settlements by football hooligans and far-right extremists.
The EC has not commented on the action of the local law enforcement authorities, which it says are within the competence of the authorities. The EU has demanded all its member states to present Brussels with a plan by the end of this year for integration of Roma communities in socio-economic life.
