Smoke rises as participants burn flares and wave Polish flags during the Independence Day march in in Warsaw, Poland. (AFP pic)WARSAW: Tens of thousands of Polish nationalist sympathisers gathered in Warsaw Wednesday for an annual Independence Day March, just days after a deadly shooting spree in Krakow that shook the country.
The event is held each Nov 11 to commemorate the ending in 1918 of 123 years of partition by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
The march began with the national anthem, which rang out as participants lit flares that blanketed the demonstration in thick smoke.
"There are surely over half a million Poles," Rafal Buca, a spokesperson for the event's organisers, told AFP when asked about the number of participants.
