Riots broke out in The Hague on Saturday because of the Dutch government’s new anti-coronavirus measures. Video from the scene showed riot police deploying water cannons and charging protest groups.
The Netherlands returned to three weeks of partial lockdown last Saturday and is now planning to ban unvaccinated people from some locations.
Five police officers were injured in the clash in The Hague, one was taken to hospital with concussion and two suffered hearing damage from the loud gunfire, police said in a statement.
Thousands of protesters attended a mostly peaceful march in the capital Amsterdam on Saturday. Dutch public broadcaster NOS also reported riots in the town of Urk and cities in the southern province of Limburg. The protests followed violent clashes on Friday night in the port city of Rotterdam, in which police were forced to open fire to disperse crowds, and 51 people were arrested.
In another development, an estimated 40,000 people on Saturday crammed the streets of Vienna in the country’s largest coronavirus-related protest to date. The police tried to de-escalate the protest, and when “the mood is about to rise” they stop fines those who don’t wear masks, Franz Eigner, Vienna’s deputy police chief, said at a news conference on Sunday. .
Several police officers sprayed “unidentified liquid” at them, and protesters were trying to blind a helicopter with lasers, Eigner said.
Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said at a news conference that a small number of protesters were “extremely prone to violence”.
Austria will re-impose a partial nationwide shutdown on Monday and make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory from February next year.
More than 1,400 police officers have been deployed across the country to maintain public order, according to a police statement. The police statement added that pepper spray was used during a “hot” protest in central Vienna.
France sent dozens of elite police and counter-terrorism officers to its Caribbean island of Guadeloupe on Saturday after looting and arson overnight despite an overnight curfew.
The island’s governor on Friday issued a stay-at-home order after protests against vaccination turned violent the night before. The Interior Ministry said 31 people were arrested.
About 15,000 people on Saturday protested in Zagreb against the Croatian government’s anti-coronavirus measures. From Monday, only people with Covid passports can enter government and public buildings in Croatia.
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