- Riots and looting are spreading in the Netherlands in spite of its new COVID-19 evening clock.
- Cities, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven, were in turmoil.
- A COVID-19 test center in one small town was burned to the ground.
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There were riots and looting in Dutch cities on Monday, a furious reaction to a new COVID-19 evening clock set up by authorities there.
A virus testing center, a hospital and shops have been targeted over three days of violence that erupted Monday night, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The weekend was the first of a curfew that took place from 21:00 to 04:00, a new measure to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.
This measure was in addition to the existing lock-in rules, which included widespread work-from-home orders, masked wear in most indoor locations, and 5-foot social distance.
There have been several reports of violent incidents nationwide since Saturday night, including:
A man takes a photo of a burnt coronavirus test center in the port of Urk on January 24, 2021, after the youth went on a rampage at the first 21:00 night bell in the Netherlands since the occupation during World War II. (WO II)
Jeroen Jumelet / ANP / AFP via Getty Images
- Sunday: A banned anti-lockdown demonstration in Amsterdam turned violent, leading to the arrest of 190 people, the AP reported. Video footage posted on social media showed people overturning a car:
—Miki 🇷🇸🇳🇱 (@Miki_Djokic) 25 January 2021
Police use a water cannon during a demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands on January 24, 2021
Eva Plevier / Reuters
- Sunday: Rioters in Eindhoven set fire to a police car and attacked police with stones and fireworks and looted a supermarket, the AP reported. According to the BBC, bicycles were piled up in burning barriers and police were pelted with golf balls.
- The Jewish mayor, John Jorritsma, called the culprits ‘the scum of the earth’ and, according to the AP, suggested that they put the country on a path to ‘civil war’. Police have arrested 62 suspects, the agency reported.
Protesters parked bicycles to block a street and set it on fire during a protest action against the Covid-19 measures near Eindhoven Central Station on 24 January 2021.
Stringer / Anadolu via Getty Images
- Sunday: The Medisch Spectrum Twente hospital, in the eastern city of Enschede, was attacked by people trying to break its windows with stones, a hospital spokesperson told De Volkskrant.
- Monday: According to De Volkskrant, hundreds of young people destroyed vehicles, set off fireworks, smashed shop windows and looted shops.
—Jorn Jonker (@Jorn) 25 January 2021
- Monday: shops were looted and a police station was pelted with rocks in Rotterdam, asking police to use tear gas and one police officer to fire a warning shot, the newspaper reported. Separate press photos show firefighters burning that same evening.
Firefighters are working on 25 January 2021 to put out a fire on the Groene Hilledijk in Rotterdam.
Marco de Swaart / ANP / AFP via Getty Images
- According to various reports, protests and demonstrations were also reported in Zwolle, Helmond, Haarlem and The Hague.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned the violence and removed it from legal protests. “It has nothing to do with protest, it is criminal violence and we will treat it as such,” the BBC told him at a news conference.
In the city of Goes and the province of North Holland, the police detained people on suspicion of using social media to demand violence, reports the AP.
The Netherlands has so far reported just over 966,000 cases and 13,686 deaths due to the virus.