URC, Netherlands (AP) – Rioters set fires in the center of the city of Eindhoven in the south of the city and pelted police with stones on Sunday during a banned demonstration against coronavirus shutdown measures, while officers responded with tear gas and water cannons and at least 30 people arrested.
Police in the capital of Amsterdam also used a water cannon to an illegal betogingsdemonstrasie surrounded on a large square to spread museums. The video showed police spraying people grouped against a wall of the Van Gogh Museum.
It was the worst violence to hit the Netherlands since the start of the pandemic and the second straight Sunday that police clashed with protesters in Amsterdam.. The country has been in a tough lockout since mid-December, which must last at least until February 9th.
In Eindhoven, 125 kilometers south of Amsterdam, a central square near the main station was littered with rocks, bicycles and broken glass. The crowd of hundreds of protesters were apparently also supporters of the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA, who wanted to protest in the city.
Police in Eindhoven said they made at least 30 arrests in the late afternoon and warned people to stay away from the city center amid the clashes. Trains to and from the station were stopped and local media robbed them of looting at the station.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The violence took place a day after rioters set fire to a coronavirus test facility in the Dutch fishing village of Urk.
The video from Urk, 80 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam, showed young people breaking into the coronavirus tests near the port of the town before it was set on fire on Saturday night.
The Dutch government has agreed to limit the spread of the more transmissible variant of the coronavirus.
Police said they fined more than 3,600 people nationwide for breaking the curfew that stretched from 9pm to Sunday 4:30 a.m. and arresting 25 people for breaking the curfew or for violence.
Police and municipal officials on Sunday issued a statement expressing their anger over rioting, “from throwing fireworks and stones to the destruction of police cars and with the test site igniting as a deep end.”
“This is not only unacceptable but also a slap in the face, especially for the local health care staff who are doing everything in the testing center to help people from Urk,” the local authorities said, adding that the curfew rule will be strict. enforced for the rest of the week.
On Sunday, the portable test building left a burnt-out shell.
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Associated Press author Mike Corder in Otterlo contributed.
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