Bulgarian Students Protest Against Crime

About 1,000 students, carrying flowers and lit candles, united under the motto: `No to murders! No to corruption!.`

Hundreds of young people held a silent rally in Sofia on Friday urging the government to step up the fight against crime after drunk youths beat to death a student.

Inspired by protests in neighbouring Greece, students called on the Socialist-led government to show it can impose rule of law and crack down on widespread gang crime in the dozens of bars and night clubs in Sofia's student district.

"We stand against what is happening in Bulgaria -- because life here is full of aggression," said student Orlin Viktorov, 25. "But we will not do as in Greece - you cannot fight violence with violence," he said.

The killing has touched a raw nerve among young Bulgarians, many of whom say are ashamed to live in the European Union's poorest and most corrupt member state, which Brussels stripped of millions of euros in EU aid over fraud.

About 1,000 students, carrying flowers and lit candles, united under the motto: "No to murders! No to corruption!. Today it's Stoyan, tomorrow it could be you and your child" and demanded a just punishment for the murderers of their colleague.

Stoyan Baltov was kicked to death last week by a group of drunken youths in front of a disco club in the suburb, where many universities and campuses are situated. Police arrested five people and two young men have been accused of manslaughter.

The protest would further hit the plunging ratings of the government, hit by failure to tame chronic corruption or send organised crime bosses behind bars but analysts say the students' anger was unlikely to topple it.