More than 160 police hurt in running battles with protesters
ANTI-CAPITALIST protesters brought Hamburg to a standstill yesterday as they fought running battles with police and tried to disrupt the G20 summit.
Masked protesters dressed in black attacked police with iron bars and narrowly missed a police helicopter with a firework. They set cars alight and tore down street signs to make barricades.
Melania Trump, the First Lady, missed a boat trip laid on for the spouses of world leaders after the American delegation said it was unsafe. Malcolm Turnbull, the Australian prime minister, tweeted that he was under “security lockdown” with Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president. Police guarding the hotel where Mr Turnbull and Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, were both staying had earlier come under attack.
Jean-claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, the EU representatives, were 45 minutes late to a press conference after being blocked, and Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, had to pull out of a planned meeting.
Police fought back with water cannon and pepper spray, but at times seemed overwhelmed. By mid-morn- ing they issued an urgent call for reinforcements, despite the fact there were already 15,000 officers on the ground. More than 160 police were injured in the scuffles, along with at least 11 protesters and one bystander.
There were tense scenes just outside the venue in the morning as police dragged protesters out of the street. One young woman in a blue smock hung limp as police dragged her along the ground by her arms, while officers picked up two young men and threw them on to the pavement.
By late afternoon police had sealed much of the city centre off. All bus services and U Bahn lines were closed down, leaving bewildered residents facing a long walk home.
Several marriages scheduled to take place in the city had to be called off after the registry office was closed for security reasons, while a city centre kindergarten was evacuated. Hospitals issued urgent calls for all staff to report to duty. As evening drew on, protesters moved to the harbour area where they were hoping to block the leaders from reaching a gala concert in the city’s brand new concert hall.
Many of the estimated 12,000 protesters were peaceful. At one point police looked on while a bearded man in a pink wig and peasant skirt played the bongo drums, and women danced and laughed in the sun. But masked protesters dressed in black were moving through the crowd a few feet away, and a militant minority was always present.
Angela Merkel condemned the violence as “unacceptable”, and said the protesters had endangered people’s lives. These were not the scenes Mrs Merkel had in mind when she chose Hamburg to host the summit. She reportedly wanted to prove a democratic society can tolerate peaceful protest.