BRUSSELS, Nov 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Police and protesters clashed in the streets of Brussels on Sunday in demonstrations over government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions, with police firing water cannon and tear gas at demonstrators throwing rocks and smoke bombs, witnesses said.
About 35,000 people took part in demonstrations, police said, which began peacefully before violence broke out.
Protesters wearing black hoods threw stones at police as they advanced with water cannon at the main junction in front of the European Union Commission headquarters.
Facing up to the police lines, the protesters held hands and chanted “freedom”. One protester was carrying a placard reading “when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty”.
Protesters also threw smoke bombs and fireworks, the newspaper Le Soir reported. The situation calmed down later, police said.
Belgium tightened its coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday, mandating wider use of masks and enforcing work from home, as cases rose in the country’s fourth COVID-19 wave.
There have been 1,581,500 infections and 26,568 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country of 11.7 million people since the pandemic began. Infections are increasing again, with 13,826 new cases reported on average each day.
THE HAGUE: Dutch police said they had arrested 48 people after a second night of violent riots erupted over the government’s coronavirus measures.
Prosecutors meanwhile updated to four the number of people shot when police opened fire during an “orgy of violence” in the port city of Rotterdam on Friday night.
The two nights of unrest in a number of cities came a week after the Dutch government went into a partial lockdown over a surge in cases.
In The Hague on Saturday night, officers in riot gear charged demonstrators who set fire to bicycles and an electric moped piled in the middle of a busy intersection.
“The police were also pelted with heavy fireworks and stones thrown from roofs,” police said in a statement, adding that water cannon was used to put out the fire.
“Officers made a total of 19 arrests for, among other things, insult.”
Five police officers were injured during the unrest while a rock thrown by rioters smashed the window of a passing ambulance carrying a patient, police said.
Thirteen people were arrested in separate riots in the towns of Stein and Roermond in southern Limburg province after fireworks were thrown at officers, police said.
Police also made 16 arrests during clashes in the “Bible Belt” town of Urk, where vaccination rates are very low due to conservative Protestant beliefs, local media said, quoting police.
On Friday violence broke out in the port city of Rotterdam after a protest against COVID-19 measures, during which police opened fire and 51 suspects were arrested.
“It now appears that four people have been hit by bullets,” the Dutch public prosecutor’s office said in a statement, blaming medical confidentiality rules for the delay in getting the correct figure.
The Netherlands went back into western Europe’s first partial lockdown of the winter last Saturday with at least three weeks of curbs under which bars, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets and non-essential shops must shut early.
The government has said it wants to bring in the 2G option – which would bar unvaccinated people from getting COVID-19 passes for some venues – after that, but there has been opposition in parliament.
In January the Netherlands suffered its worst riots in decades after the government introduced a coronavirus curfew. — NNN-AGENCIES
