Police injured as G-20 protest turns violent
About 12,000 join ‘Welcome to Hell’ demonstration on eve of summit
HAMBURG, Germany — German police deployed water cannons and pepper spray against protesters Thursday — the eve of the G-20 summit in Hamburg — after a group of partially masked demonstrators attacked them with bottles, firecrackers and other objects, police said.
Some 12,000 protesters joined the so-called Welcome to Hell demonstration. Of those, about 1,000 were covering their faces, which is illegal during protests in Germany, according to police.
Police said a total of 76 officers were injured. One officer was taken to a hospital with an eye injury after a firecracker exploded near him, according to a police statement.
Two others were also taken to a hospital.
An undisclosed number of demonstrators were injured.
Organizers declared the protest over after vain attempts by police to separate the violent protesters from the peaceful ones. It had been scheduled to finish later Thursday at the Reeperbahn — the epicenter of the city’s red-light district — just 300 meters from the summit venue.
Nevertheless, hours after the original protest ended, several unofficial marches resumed.
A group of 300 demonstrators shouted antipolice slogans. The police statement spoke of an “aggressive” atmosphere and decried “violence.”
Police spokesman Timo Zill was attacked by protesters but managed to flee unscathed after hiding in an ambulance, officials said.
Two police helicopter pilots sustained eye injuries through laser pointers, a police statement added.
Protesters smashed windows at a department store and at a bank branch close to the route of the protest. Yet later, authorities reported that groups of protesters were moving through the city.
“We are appalled,” Hamburg police wrote on Twitter.
Protest organizer Andreas Blechschmidt said between 10 and 20 demonstrators had been detained by late Thursday evening.
Even after midnight, some 6,000 demonstrators were on the streets, Hamburg police chief Ralf Martin Meyer said.
The main G-20 protest is scheduled for early Saturday and is expected to bring together 100,000 protesters from a web of civil society, environmentalist and political groups.
German leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, have supported the right to peaceful protest surrounding the summit. The country’s highest court also backed demonstrators in their call for a protest camp on the sidelines of the G-20.
But Hamburg police have taken a stricter line, for example saying protesters are not allowed to camp overnight or to set up cooking and toilet facilities there.