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Haiti: Security scare as Martelly attacked while walking
Haiti President Michel Martelly. PHOTO/File
Haitian President Michel Martelly and his accompanying motorcade were attacked as the leader strolled in downtown Port-au-Prince, the National Palace said Friday.
The statement said only that “troublemakers” who had taken refuge in a university were responsible for the afternoon attack on Martelly as he walked near the Champs de Mars plaza in a Carnival procession.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that rocks were thrown at the president from behind the University of Haiti.
One witness said he saw Martelly hit in the shoulder by a rock but otherwise wasn’t injured.
Martelly “almost fell,” said Stanley Lazard, 25. “Two security guards embraced him and put him in the car. He definitely got hit with a rock.”
The presidential office and witnesses both said Martelly had been taken without injury to the nearby National Palace.
Police responded by firing shots in the air and unleashing tear gas as rocks were lobbed over the university fence, Lazard and other witnesses said.
