A crowd gathered on the New Belgrade side of the Sava river to protest plans by the city authorities to take down one of the city’s bridges.

The Stari Savski Most (Old Sava Bridge) is used by city buses and trams as well as cars connecting the new and old parts of the Serbian capital. The city government, with the support of the Serbian authorities overall, want to remove the bridge which was built in 1942 by the occupying Nazis. It was the only big bridge in Europe that was not demolished during the Nazi withdrawal thanks to teacher Miladin Zaric who climbed onto the bridge and defused the explosives placed there by the Germans. The city authorities said that the bridge would be moved to the New Belgrade side as a tourist attraction and a new bridge built across the Sava.

The removal of the bridge is planned for later this week.

Opposition officials and democracy activists are claiming that the main reason to remove the bridge is the Belgrade Waterfront complex, a pet project of the authorities.

Protesters heard several speakers pledging to defend the bridge before standing in the middle to light it up with their phones and flashlights.

They also set up a makeshift camp to stay overnight. A protest organizer said the idea is to have 20-30 people on the bridge at all time to prevent its demolition, adding that some 700 people have signed up to stand guard.