G20: Hamburg sees third night of clashes between police, protesters

Hamburg, Jul 9: Fresh clashes erupted early on Sunday in the streets of Hamburg following the end of the G20 summit, with protesters setting fire to a number of vehicles, the police said.

The protesters gathered after the close of the summit in the Schanzen district, a stronghold for extreme left radicals which has been the site of multiple confrontations since Thursday.

Armed with glass bottles and targeting vehicles, many of which they set on fire, the protesters were pushed back by the police, using water cannon and tear gas, the police said on Twitter.

The police said more officers had been injured, and more people arrested. According to the most recent figures given by the police, some 213 police officers have been injured since Thursday, and 143 people have been detained. No accurate number for protestors injured is available.

On Thursday, a planned peaceful march by around 12,000 people protesting against globalisation turned violent. Friday's clashes occurred as leaders from the world's 20 biggest developed and emerging economies began the two-day meeting focusing on trade, terrorism, climate change and other key global issues.

Hamburg, a vibrant port city, is a citadel of leftwing radicals and authorities had long been bracing for possible violence on the sidelines of the summit. The German police officers' union GdP on Friday hit out at anarchist groups called the Black Bloc, accusing them of "hijacking peaceful demonstrations by tens of thousands of people to deliberately attack" police.

World leaders made concessions on trade and climate language to US President Donald Trump Saturday at the end of the most fractious and riot-hit G20 summit ever, in exchange for preserving a fragile unity of the club of major industrialised and emerging economies.

PTI