(LEAD) Pro-Park protesters clash with police amid growing tensions over Park's ouster

All News 15:16 March 11, 2017

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SEOUL, March 11 (Yonhap) -- Increasingly violent protesters in support of ousted President Park Geun-hye clashed with police Saturday amid tensions over the Constitutional Court's historic ruling to uphold her impeachment because of a massive corruption scandal.

Hours ahead of their rally to call for the nullification of the verdict in central Seoul, dozens of Park supporters threw combustible substances and sprayed fire extinguishers at a police station in an angry reaction to the police's move to tighten security around their protest site.

Four of them were taken into custody for investigation.

Protests by Park supporters are becoming increasingly violent. Since the court's ruling to dismiss Park on Friday, three people have died, reportedly from injuries they sustained during rallies in the capital.

Park's core supporters have argued that the unprecedented verdict, which is unchallengeable, was biased and must be reversed.

"The Constitutional Court is full of evil," Chung Soon-yong, an 80-year-old citizen brandishing a national flag, told Yonhap News Agency. "They are hiding the truth, and the ruling was only based on a small part of the entire picture."

Others called the verdict unconstitutional, citing Article 84 of the basic law that stipulates a sitting president will not be charged in a criminal case except in cases of treason or insurrection.

"The country is facing neither insurrection nor treason," Chang Choon-woo, another Park supporter, told Yonhap.

Anti-Park protesters, however, welcomed the decision, casting it as their hard-earned victory following months of street rallies.

Mindful of deepening national division, Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has urged the nation to accept the court's decision and work together to end divisions and restore national unity.b