MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Protesters in Buenos Aires attack Legislature assembly building

Leftist activists, street peddlers, transvestites and prostitutes attacked this capital's municipal assembly on Friday, throwing stones, firecrackers and tar bombs to stop lawmakers from discussing a new penal code.

The protesters are seeking to prevent the legislature from tightening penalties for illegal street vending and prostitution and placing restrictions on public demonstrations in Buenos Aires.

The assault initially forced some of the police to seek refuge in the building and the rest to retreat after confronting groups of demonstrators.

The riots were unleashed just as polls showed the population's widespread rejection of street demonstrations by jobless militants who cut off traffic in the Argentine capital almost daily.

Police began to repel the demonstrations after attackers threw tar bombs to burn down the doors of the municipal assembly and broke the building's windows with rocks and cobblestones pulled from surrounding streets.

The demonstrators, several of them hooded, also threw sticks and stones at police, who responded by spraying them with water from high pressure hoses from inside the building, located 300 meters (328 yards) from Argentina's government headquarters.

The riots, which lasted some three hours, were somewhat quelled when police surrounded the building and sprayed tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

But the legislative building was still being surrounded by demonstrators carrying signs protesting the proposed reforms.

Police, meanwhile, had arrested about 20 people.

In recent months, the city's shopkeepers and the middle class have become increasingly frustrated with constant demonstrations by "piqueteros" - as the groups of the unemployed who block off streets and occupy businesses in protest are known.