Police dispersed the last of the thousands of demonstrators who clashed with officers in Hungary’s capital Budapest during commemorations on the anniversary of the 1956 uprising against Soviet rule.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters who later hijacked two unarmed tanks in violence that marred the 50th anniversary of Hungary’s uprising against Soviet rule.

THE diary of Gyula Csics for October 23, 1956, starts with a 12-year-old boy tending his grandfathers’ graves and ends with him listening to the sounds of a revolution which briefly freed Hungary from Soviet rule.

IT’s all of half a century now since President John F Kennedy declared: “October 23, 1956, is a day that will live forever in the annals of free men and nations.