Pedestrians, even small children and elderly women, were routinely being patted down in the search for weapons. At each stop, the blockaders searched all cars, looking in trunks and under hoods, eyeing foreigners suspiciously and demanding to see passports. Virtually every neighborhood in the city’s central area had roadblocks protected by nervous-looking young men, some armed with automatic rifles, others with clubs, bats and pieces of wood.Ī drive at mid-afternoon to the city center from the southern edge of the city, a distance of only a few miles, required passage though nine separate roadblocks, some no more than two blocks apart.

Trucks, buses, cement mixers, trolleys and overturned tables and chairs were used to block traffic in the streets as residents searched for Securitate agents. Across the square, young men in civilian clothes carrying knives and semi-automatic rifles guarded the former headquarters of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, now being used by the army and the civilian committees of the Front of National Salvation. In the main university library, which faces the square, a huge fire raged out of control for a second day. In the city’s central square, the Plaza of the Republic, tanks and armored personnel carriers stood guard and the sound of machine-gun fire echoed off the still-burning shells of wrecked buildings. And residents nervously talked of reports that Securitate men attacked hospitals early Sunday, destroying blood supplies and seizing ambulances in which they reportedly cruised the city, shooting into crowds. Throughout the afternoon, the sound of sniper fire from rooftops scattered crowds around the city. We had a lull for two or three hours, and now they’re starting again,” he said, adding: “It’s one thing to have soldiers and tanks around the building it’s another to actually secure it.”Īt one point early Sunday, Ceausescu supporters in civilian clothes reportedly penetrated the building, killing a woman and wounding two men in a knife and rifle attack before being subdued. “These attacks came all day yesterday, into the night, into the early morning. Interviewed from a studio in the station in the afternoon, Independent Television News correspondent Paul Davies reported that the building had come under bazooka attack minutes before. Romanian television continued to be one of the diehard security forces’ primary targets Sunday.

The authorities acted after Romanian exile groups said that the deposed dictator had stashed up to $400 million worth of gold in Zurich. In Switzerland, meanwhile, the justice minister said Sunday that the government has imposed a “precautionary” freeze on any assets the Ceausescus might have in that country. The Ceausescus’ son, Nicu, was arrested and shown on television Friday, and on Sunday it was revealed that their daughter, Zoia, was also being held at the state television studios which have become an important headquarters of the revolution.Ī spokesman for the provisional government said Ceausescu has not been shown on television because of concern that his appearance might inspire the dreaded Securitate, the dictator’s secret police and his own private guard, to step up their last-ditch struggle. The tunnels were stocked with arms, ammunition and electronic monitoring equipment, according to the report. At about the same time, Bucharest Radio said that soldiers have found a vast network of safehouses and secret tunnels criss-crossing the city. Soviet state television reported without elaboration Sunday that the couple were apprehended while hiding in an underground bunker. More than half the holdouts are believed to be in the Romanian capital, where, traveling in plain clothes through a secret network of subterranean passageways and with access to hidden stockpiles of arms and ammunition, they have wreaked havoc by firing from roofs and top-floor apartments on soldiers and civilians below.Ĭeausescu and his wife, Elena, were reported in army custody on Saturday, although no details of his alleged capture have yet been revealed, and the so-called Front of National Salvation has produced no evidence that he is actually in the new government’s hands. Romanian army sources told Reuters news agency in Bucharest that there appeared to be about 3,000 Ceausescu loyalists providing the backbone of a bloody resistance that the Red Cross estimated had claimed up to 5,000 lives over the weekend alone.Įven more were reported killed earlier in Timisoara, where Romania’s popular uprising began 10 days ago. The Britons had chosen not to join the earlier evacuation. As if to underscore the need for that evacuation, more than 30 dependents of British officials were forced to abandon their embassy later in the day and seek refuge in the American compound after the British ambassador’s residence, which overlooks some of the heaviest fighting, caught fire.

Sniper roadblock