…Hamburg police call for reinforcements
Anti-capitalist protesters on Friday set fire to cars, barricades, rubbish bins and wooden pallets on Friday as leaders from the world’s top economies convened for a summit in the northern German city of Hamburg.
Police said violence that erupted during marches on Thursday continued into Friday, with protesters slashing the tires of a car belonging to the Canadian delegation to the G20 summit and smashing windows of the consulate of Mongolia.
At least 29 protesters were detained and 111 police officers had been injured as of Friday morning, including three officers who required treatment in hospital.
A police spokesman said only small numbers of far-left or anarchist protesters were involved in violence, with the majority of an estimated 100,000 demonstrators in the city remaining peaceful.
Some 12,000 took part in the main march.
Authorities said 15,000 police were on hand from each of Germany’s 16 states, authorities said they asked for reinforcements late on Thursday after realising the situation on the streets of Hamburg was proving more difficult than expected.
“We have asked nationwide if police forces are available and those requests are being reviewed,” a police spokesman said.
Police said on Friday, smaller groups of protesters attacked both manned and empty police cars, one of which was hit by a petrol bomb.
According to a statement by the police, one of the many police helicopters patrolling the skies was nearly struck by a rocket flare.
On Thursday the pilots of another helicopter sustained eye injuries after a laser was directed against them.
Police said they continued to dispel street blockades throughout the port city.
Meanwhile, German media are reporting that US first lady Melania Trump has been unable to leave her Hamburg residence to take part in the summit’s programme for leaders’ partners because of the presence of demonstrators.
“We have no security clearance from the police to leave the guest house,” a spokeswoman told German news agency DPA.
Other partners, including Brigitte Macron, the wife of France’s president Emmanuel Macron, Theresa May’s husband Philip and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, the wife of Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, are on a sightseeing tour with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s husband, Joachim Sauer.