AMSTERDAM – Dutch police have arrested more than 150 people in a third night of unrest in cities across the Netherlands, where roaming groups rioted, threw stones and looted shops in violence caused by a nightmare controlling the coronavirus has.
The country’s first nightmare since World War II follows a warning from the National Institutes of Health (RIVM) about a new wave of infections due to the ‘British variant’ of the virus, and was imposed despite weeks of decline in new infections.
Ten police were injured in the port city of Rotterdam, where 60 rioters were detained overnight, the Dutch news agency ANP said on Tuesday.
Two photographers were injured after being targeted by stone-throwing gangs, one in the capital Amsterdam and another in the nearby city of Haarlem, broadcaster NH Nieuws said.
In the east of the capital, at least nine people were detained after clashes with riot police. The shop windows were broken and an angry group attacked a police van, witnesses said.
The unrest in towns and cities across the Netherlands initially arose from calls to protest the country’s difficult closure, but turned into vandalism by crowds whipped up by messages circulating on social media.
Schools and non-essential shops have been closed since mid-December, after bars and restaurants closed two months earlier.
“Unfortunately we see the same things as last night,” Willem Woelders, chief of police, told the Dutch current program Nieuwsuur. He said about 70 rioters had been arrested and police used tear gas in the western city of Haarlem as well as Rotterdam.
Police in Rotterdam said young people took to the streets and sought a confrontation with police. ‘Riot officers tried to break up the violence and made a number of arrests before firing tear gas. Police have warned people to stay away from the area. The national broadcaster NOS showed video of the police using a water cannon and reported that some shops had been looted.
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Police in the southern city of Den Bosch said a shop had been looted and riot police were trying to restore order.
By late Monday night, police in Rotterdam had picked up broken glass behind the street next to a vandalized bus stop. The force tweeted that “calm is slowly returning, but the atmosphere is still grim.”
In the southern city of Geleen, police tweeted that young people were throwing fireworks in the city center. Riot police, protesters accused in The Hague.
Dutch media have called on social media for further violent protests, even as the country struggles to contain new coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
Police in the southern city of Goes and the North Holland province said they had detained people because they allegedly used social media to cause riots.
“This is unacceptable,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said earlier on Monday about riots on Sunday. “It has nothing to do with protest, it’s criminal violence and that’s how we will deal with it.”
The worst hit Sunday was the southern city of Eindhoven, where police clashed with hundreds of rioters who burned a car, threw stones and fireworks at officers, smashed windows and looted a supermarket at its train station.
“My city is crying, and so am I,” Eindhoven Mayor John Jorritsma told reporters in an emotional, impromptu news conference on Sunday night. He called the rioters “the scum of the earth” and added: “I am afraid we are heading for a civil war if we continue on this path.”
Police in Amsterdam have arrested 190 people during a riot on Sunday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.
The death toll in the Netherlands stands at 13,579, with 952,950 infections to date.