A police station has been firebombed and cars and buildings set alight in the German city of Hamburg, where world leaders are holding crunch talks today.
Police have called for reinforcements after tens of thousands of protesters descended on Hamburg, causing chaos.
US First Lady Melania Trump is reportedly trapped inside her hotel room and some world leaders were late arriving to the G20 summit because of the protests.
Shocking footage shows smoke billowing from vehicles as the city hosting the G20 summit looked like a warzone.
German police confirmed this morning that the police station had been targeted by ‘perpetrators of violence’, as thousands of officers flood the streets anticipating violent demonstrations.
It comes after more than 70 people were injured in clashes between riot police and anti-capitalists last night, with a march named ‘Welcome to Hell’ descending into chaos.
This morning Hamburg police used a water cannon to clear a blockade by protesters ahead of the opening of the summit.
Hamburg police, who are already being backed up by officers from other German states as well as from Austria, made the request for reinforcements ‘in order to get relief’, a spokesman said.
Police said the blockade happened on the banks of the Outer Alster lake, some distance from the trade fair grounds where the summit is being held. They said they had repeatedly told a group of protesters to clear the road.
Officers repeatedly used water cannons, as well as pepper spray and batons, on Thursday evening amid clashes with violent protesters.
Up to 100,000 anti-capitalist protesters are expected to descend on the city today, as heads of state including US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin meet for the G20 talks.
Police said that at least 111 officers were hurt during yesterday’s clashes, one of whom had to be taken to a hospital with an eye injury after a firework exploded in front of him. Twenty-nine people were arrested and a further 15 temporarily detained.
Organiser Andreas Blechschmidt criticised what he said was a heavy-handed and ‘massive’ police response with batons.
‘The police should have reacted proportionally… It wasn’t necessary. There are a lot of people injured,’ Blechschmidt said on N-TV. Around 30 people were arrested.
‘War, climate change, exploitation are the result of the capitalist system that the G20 stands for and which 20,000 police are here to defend,’ demonstrator Georg Ismail told AFP.
Burned out cars today bear testimony to the violence ahead of the talks. Police believe as many as 8,000 protesters are ready to commit violence. More than 70 people were injured in last night’s clashes.
Officers say they repeatedly asked a group of demonstrators to remove their masks and hoods last night, but instead officers were hit with bottles and bricks – breaking the window of a riot van.
They then decided to separate the group from the rest of the march, which they estimated at 12,000 people in total.
The violence broke out near the start of the demonstration at a riverside plaza used for Hamburg’s weekly fish market.
As leaders arrived yesterday, riot police fired water cannon at a group of about a thousand black-clad protesters who hurled bottles in a demonstration organisers had dubbed ‘Welcome to Hell’.
Some 20,000 police from all of Germany’s 16 states have been deployed on the streets of Hamburg.
They will be facing off against up to 100,000 protesters, including an estimated 8,000 who police say are prepared to use violence.
Local resident Benjamin Laub, 53, said his neighbourhood has resembled a zone ‘under a state of emergency’ for days.
‘For a week we’ve heard the choppers above all the time. The buses don’t run, people leave their cars at home, they walk or ride bicycles. I’m carrying my passport for the first time in Germany (because of police checks),’ said the hockey trainer.
A livid Markus Munch, 48, speaking on his bike near Trump’s residence in a plush area beside the Alster lake twinkling in the summer sunshine, had little sympathy for the ‘idiots’ demonstrating.
‘It’s a total catastrophe that a minority can just riot like this,’ Munch told AFP. ‘These idiots have nothing better to do than to demonstrate. They have to be moved out.’
Donald Trump yesterday warned that the future of Western civilisation is at stake and the West must decide if it has the ‘will to survive’.
At the start of a four-day trip to Europe, the US President said the lack of a collective resolve could doom an alliance that endured through the Cold War.
In a speech in Warsaw – ahead of the G20 meeting in Hamburg – he lashed out at hostile forces, ranging from Islamic terrorism to Russia.
He addressed a large cheering crowd and allowed for long pauses as he listened to chants of ‘Donald Trump’ from the monument to the 1944 Uprising in the city.
Praising Poland for its resilience in the face of historic threats from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, he declared: ‘Let us all fight like Poles.’
Mr Trump said: ‘As the Polish experience reminds us, the defence of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail.
‘The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.’ While it was no longer necessary to confront the ‘spectre of communism’ in Europe, there were other ‘dire threats’ to the West’s security and way of life, Mr Trump said.
‘We are confronted by another oppressive ideology – one that seeks to export terrorism and extremism all around the globe. America and Europe have suffered one terror attack after another. We’re going to get it to stop.’
He said during his visit to Saudi Arabia he had urged the leaders of 50 Muslim nations to help tackle Islamic extremists. He added: We must stand united against these shared enemies.’
Mr Trump was given a very warm welcome, the crowd cheering and chanting his name. Many were said to have been bussed in to ensure his reception was big and noisy.
Appearing to refer to America’s controversial travel ban, he said the US would always welcome new citizens but added: ‘Our borders will always be closed to terrorism and extremism of any kind.
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