TENS of thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday against lithium mining in Serbia as officials claimed it was part of a plot to topple populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government.

Mr Vucic said he had been tipped off by Russian intelligence services that “mass unrest and a coup” were being promoted by unspecified Western powers that wish to oust him from power.

Officials and state-controlled media launched a major campaign against the rally, comparing it to the Maidan uprising in Ukraine’s capital Kiev, which led to the toppling of the country’s pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych in 2013.