HAMBURG – Violent protests against the G20 summit in Hamburg continued for the second night with rioters attacking police, erecting barricades and trashing shops and vehicles. At least 143 people have been detained and over 200 police officers injured so far.
“We have never experienced this level of hate and violence,” Hamburg police spokesman Timo Zill told the Bild tabloid.
Demonstrators were armed with Molotov cocktails and iron bars, police said in a press statement.
https://youtu.be/YVfIVKCnV2s
“At the interception Schanzenviertel district [in central Hamburg], the forces were permanently subjected to violent attacks,” the statement added.
The protesters damaged shops and vehicles, police said, adding that some 500 people looted a supermarket on Friday night during ongoing protests.
https://youtu.be/No92bA8HXvk
At least 213 police officers have been injured in the protests, police said on Saturday morning.
“I am shaken over the violence that many had to endure, with their vehicles or property destroyed, or witnessing this brutality against police officers,” Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz said.
https://youtu.be/wukHBVJxa04
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas slammed the protests on Twitter.
“Criminals belong before courts, not on the street,” he tweeted.
https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/883477412268343296
A video shows the scale of damage in the Neuer Pferdemarkt district of Hamburg following the night of clashes, including badly damaged stores and burnt-out barricades in the G20 host city.
https://youtu.be/2eSwaq47zGQ
On Friday evening, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that such violent clashes are unacceptable.
“I have every understanding for peaceful demonstrations, but violent demonstrations endanger human lives, they endanger people themselves, they put police officers and security forces in danger, put residents in danger, and so that is unacceptable,” she said.
https://youtu.be/b6h3S_KPnLw
https://youtu.be/uQKIhGBZ2iE
