More from summit
Water cannons used to disperse violent crowd
Violent street protests and a testy Trump-Peña Nieto meeting.
HAMBURG, Germany — Police were struggling to contain violent protests late Friday as thousands of far-left rioters gathered in the city of Hamburg, where Germany is hosting the Group of 20 summit.
As world leaders enjoyed Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in the German port city’s newly inaugurated Elbphilharmonie concert hall, crowds of masked hooligans set fire to cars in the central Schanzenviertel district.
Police used water cannons to disperse the protesters, some of whom authorities said were brandishing steel poles and firing projectiles at officers.
Large deployments of officers were standing not far from flames reaching several feet into the air.
Police said in a statement that a warning shot was fired by an officer as he approached two men beating and kicking another man who was lying on the street.
The two attackers and the man who was being beaten both fled the scene, it said.
In nearby St. Pauli, home to the city’s famous red-light district, police said around 1,000 protesters had gathered for a rally whose organizers had called on participants to “carry our rage at the system onto the street.”
The G-20 summit started Friday and has been accompanied by violent protests staged by militant leftists from the offset.
Hamburg police said on its official Twitter page that 196 officers have been injured in the clashes, up from a previously reported figure of 159.
None of the officers was seriously injured.
Thousands of protesters had attempted to close in on the concert hall, where heads of state and government close a day of diplomatic appointments with a symphony performance.
However, the event went more or less as planned, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel along with other leaders and their spouses arriving without incident.
Police said that 6,000 people were part of the effort to penetrate a protestfree zone imposed by police around the Elbphilharmonie, with at least 1,000 people wearing masks to cover their faces, which is illegal during protests in Germany.
Police used water cannon in an attempt to contain the protest, while demonstrators smashed windows, set fire to cars and threw bottles, stones and other objects at officers.
Merkel condemned the violence as “unacceptable,” adding that she had “a great deal of understanding for peaceful protests, but violent protests endanger human lives.”
Earlier Friday, protests forced President Donald Trump to take a circuitous route to the summit, and his wife, Melania, couldn’t participate in the entire spouses’ program because police said it was unsafe for her to leave the house.
Additionally, police said 20 protesters attacked security guards at Hamburg’s Hotel Park Hyatt, which is hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Earlier on Friday, Hamburg police requested backup from across Germany to contain the violence. More than 850 officers were already en route to Hamburg from five of Germany’s 16 states.
As the time for the concert neared, some 15 boats belonging to Greenpeace tried to reach the concert hall from the harbor.