MINSK, Belarus (AP) - The top opposition candidate in Belarus' presidential election left for Lithuania on Tuesday, but anti-government demonstrators still turned out for a third straight night to protest the vote results, despite a massive police crackdown that prompted a warning of possible European Union sanctions.
Looking haggard and distressed, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, 37, a former English teacher who entered the race after her husband's jailing in Belarus, apologized to her backers in a video statement and said it was her own choice to leave the country.
"It was a very hard decision to make," Tsikhanouskaya said. "I know that many of you will understand me, many others will condemn me and some will even hate me. But God forbid you ever face the choice that I faced."
In another video statement released later Tuesday, she urged her supporters to respect the law and to avoid clashes with police.
The statements marked an abrupt about-face for Tsikhanouskaya hours after she dismissed the official results of Sunday's election that showed President Alexander Lukashenko winning a sixth term with 80 percent of the vote and her getting just 10 percent.
Her campaign aides said she made the unexpected moves under duress. Tsikhanouskaya's husband, an opposition blogger who had hoped to run for president, has been jailed since his arrest in May.
The former candidate's campaign put out a statement urging authorities to engage in a dialogue with protesters on a "peaceful transition of power."
The authoritarian Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation of 9.5 million since 1994, has derided the opposition as "sheep" manipulated by foreign masters and vowed to continue taking a tough position on protests despite Western rebukes over the election.
Thousands of opposition supporters protesting the election results encountered aggressive police tactics in the capital of Minsk and several other Belarusian cities.
On Monday, a protester died amid clashes in Minsk, and scores were injured as police used tear gas, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets to disperse them. The Interior Ministry said the victim intended to throw an explosive device, but it blew up in his hand and killed him.
Belarus' health officials said more than 200 people have been hospitalized with injuries following the protests and some underwent surgery.
Police moved quickly Tuesday to separate and disperse scattered groups of protesters in the capital, but new pockets of resistance kept mushrooming across downtown Minsk.
Officers detained dozens, including some of those who brought flowers to the place where the protester died the previous night, and used stun grenades and rubber bullets to break up the crowds. Clashes between police and the protesters continued well into Tuesday night.
The ministry said Tuesday more than 2,000 people were detained across the country for taking part in unsanctioned protests Monday evening and overnight. It added 21 police officers were injured in clashes with protesters, and five of them were hospitalized.
The previous day, the ministry reported more than 3,000 detentions and said 89 people were injured, including 39 law enforcement officers.
Several journalists have been injured, and some were detained by police. On Tuesday, police seized memory cards from a group of photographers, including an AP photographer, as they were making shots of the crackdown.
Dutch daily NRC said Tuesday its Eastern Europe correspondent, Emilie van Outeren, was hit in the leg by an unknown projectile when police opened fire on demonstrators Sunday.
Polish media reported Polish journalist Jan Roman, who works with TV Polonia, was beaten Monday at a police station in Grodno, a city near the Polish border, and is currently in a hospital.
As the internet has remained down across the country for a third straight day in what appears to be an attempt by the authorities to make it harder for protesters to coordinate their efforts, thousands of Belarusians have struggled to find out what happened to their missing relatives.
"We are still waiting for any sign or information," said Lena Radomanova, who has been searching for a friend who has disappeared.
The crackdown drew harsh criticism from the European Union and the United States.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Tuesday the 27-nation bloc is mulling action against those involved in the police crackdown or against officials who might have interfered with the vote. Borrell said the elections "were neither free nor fair," and called on Minsk to begin a dialogue with society to avoid further violence.
In 2016, the EU lifted most of the sanctions it slapped on Belarus in 2004 after Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator in the West," freed political prisoners and allowed protests.
The United Nations on Tuesday expressed concern at reports of escalating violence in Belarus and again called on authorities to "exercise restraint, to ensure respect for human rights, the democratic process, the rule of law."