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BUDAPEST, Hungary — Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse protesters today in anti-government demonstrations coinciding with Hungary's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its uprising against Soviet rule.

A line of about 150 police in riot gear, behind three water cannons, slowly advanced on a crowd of about 200 protesters, who threw bottles and rocks. Police fired back with tear gas as a police helicopter circled low above the crowd.

One protester in the streets near Kossuth Square - the site of previous large demonstrations - was hit in the head by a rubber bullet and was bleeding but conscious.

Demonstrators carried placards with 7-foot-tall letters spelling out the word "freedom" in Hungarian.

The protesters had gathered in different spots near the center of the city. Some had set up road blocks with garbage cans and threw rocks at the police dressed in riot gear, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them near St. Stephen's Basilica.

Police had earlier expelled several hundred protesters from Kossuth Square outside parliament, the site of today's 1956 commemorations. The demonstrations on the square began Sept. 17, when a recording was leaked revealing Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany admitting that the government lied about the economy before its re-election in April.

State news agency MTI reported that police beat some of the protesters - including women and elderly people - with rubber batons, and some had head injuries.

The protesters had vowed to stay until Gyurcsany was dismissed, but police pushed them off the square after they refused to submit to security checks. But authorities did not dismantle the dozens of tents set up by the protesters, and they were expected to allow the demonstrators to return after today's commemoration.

At the same time, Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union, the main center-right opposition group, held its own 1956 commemoration just a few blocks away, drawing tens of thousands of people, according to MTI.

President Laszlo Solyom pleaded Sunday for national unity, trying to keep the bitter political divisions from spilling over into the celebrations.

Today's commemorations began with the raising of the national flag, followed by Hungarian and foreign dignitaries laying flowers at the foot of a 1956 monument on Kossuth Square.

Other events scheduled for today included the unveiling of a memorial dedicated to the uprising near the spot where a 60-foot statue of Stalin was toppled.