{"id":48519397,"title":"Protesters clash with police at G-20 summit","duration":"2:13","description":"Nearly 200 police officers have been injured and more than 100 hundred protestors have been detained in Hamburg, Germany, where world leaders are meeting at the G-20.","url":"/GMA/video/protesters-clash-police-20-summit-48519397","section":"GMA","mediaType":"default"}</s>Teargas and water cannon deployed outside Elbphilharmonie concert hall while inside world leaders listen to Ode to Joy

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A day of violent clashes between police and protesters culminated on Friday evening with the bizarre spectacle of the heads of the world’s 20 leading economies listening to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy at the top of a shiny high-rise building while police used water cannon, teargas and speed boats to keep at bay an angry crowd of thousands.

'Welcome to hell': G20 protests in Hamburg – in pictures Read more

Germany’s second-largest city had been eager to showcase its recently opened Elbphilharmonie concert hall to the rest of the world, but it may come to rue its ivory-tower symbolism after a week of chaotic scenes on the edges of the conference hall.

Rising tensions between protesters and police had escalated with clashes in Hamburg’s historic harbour area on Thursday night, and escalated further when masked anti-capitalist protesters torched cars and smashed shop windows in the Altona district on Friday morning.

Masked protesters in black clothes used flares to set fire to at least 20 cars and pelted rocks at the windows of banks and smaller shops as they made their way through Altona and along the Elbchaussee road along the river at about 7.30 am on Friday morning.

Many shops and cafes in the area, including a local Ikea, boarded up their windows in anticipation of further rioting.

Melania Trump, the wife of the US president, Donald Trump, was reportedly stopped from attending an event in the G20’s supporting programme by the protests. “Police have not given us security clearance to leave the guest house,” Trump’s spokesperson told the German press agency dpa.

A planned visit for leaders’ partners to a climate research centre was scrapped and replaced with a presentation by climate scientists at a luxury hotel. “Thinking of those hurt in Hamburg protests. Hope everyone stay safe!” the US president’s wife tweeted later.

Police forces around Germany dispatched reinforcements to help 15,000 police already deployed to the northern port city for the summit as the violence escalated.

Later on Friday afternoon Hamburg authorities spoke of 160 injured police officers and 70 arrested protesters. Organisers of Thursday’s “Welcome to Hell” march said 14 participants had ended up in hospital, three of whom were seriously injured and one claimed to be in a critical condition.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who hosts the summit, condemned the violence. “I have every understanding for peaceful demonstrations, but violent demonstrations put human lives in danger,” she said.

High-tech water cannon were employed in the city throughout the day. Hamburg police at one point issued a statement via Twitter in which they clarified that reports of the employment of nuclear weapons in the city were taken from a satirical news website.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators are hit by water cannon during the Welcome to Hell protest in Hamburg. Photograph: David Young/AFP/Getty Images

As G20 leaders and delegates gathered at the Elbphilharmonie after Trump’s two-and-a-half hour meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, protesters began to gather near the venue.



Police again deployed water cannon to disperse a crowd of protesters who had broken into a sealed-off riverside metro station.

Around 15 boats with climate activists tried to reach the concert venue via the harbour basin and 22 Greenpeace activists jumped into the water to swim to the bottom of the building, designed by Herzog and de Meuron. All of them were stopped by police.

Sven Jahn, a police spokesman, said that a group of about 60 masked protesters attacked three police vehicles with molotov cocktails, and that a flare fired at a police helicopter only narrowly missed its target.

Police and protesters accuse each other of having escalated the situation in the city, with police saying they had to use force after a hardcore bloc of activists had attacked them with bottles and sticks.

Andreas Beuth, a lawyer and protest co-organiser, accused authorities of deliberate provocation with heavy-handed tactics. “The escalation was clearly started by the police,” said Beuth at a press conference inside the stadium of local football club FC St Pauli on Friday morning.

Christoph Kleine, one of the organisers of Saturday’s G20 Not Welcome march, said police had “risked the loss of human life” by aiming water cannon at people standing on bridges and rooftops.

A number of journalists working for leftwing German newspapers reported on Friday that their press accreditation had been withdrawn without explanation.

Björn Kietzmann (@bjokie) WTF. The German police just seized my official #G20 press accreditation.

The owner of a burnt-out Saab on the Elbchaussee said she had just got her children to get ready for school when about 30 masked protesters started throwing bottles and molotov cocktails on the street outside, shortly before 8am.

“The car’s insured, but it has a nostalgic value,” said Ariane Striemeier-Gellsen. “If it had survived another year it would have been vintage.” She said it had taken the fire service 45 minutes to arrive on the scene.

Waltraud Waidelich, a resident of the Schanzenviertel district, said she had deliberately parked her car in the more upmarket Altona district on Thursday night, only to find her vehicle surrounded by burnt-out cars this morning.

She said she felt some of the violent protests were undermining more constructive protests and alternative conferences taking place in Hamburg at the weekend. Waidelich said: “At the alternative summit, I saw a lot of highly competent people looking constructively at ways in which we can transform the economy along more social and ecological lines.”

Some degree of protest and disagreement was normal, she said. “We have to remind politicians visiting our city that they have to work harder,” she said. “But I prefer creative forms of protests, and I am not sure what torching normal people’s cars is meant to achieve. There were a lot of young men on the streets who were mainly out to play cops and robbers with the police. Violence is not my way.”</s>(ABC NEWS) -- At least 76 police officers were injured when violent protesters clashed with police on Thursday in the streets of Hamburg, Germany, where this week's G-20 summit is set to take place, police said.

Three of the officers are being treated at the hospital, police said. One of the injured officers suffered an eye wound after a firecracker exploded in their face.

In addition, a police officer and one official were attacked near a fish market in the St. Pauli neighborhood, Hamburg police said in a press release. The two were able to escape in a rescue vehicle and were not injured, according to police.

Emergency personnel and their vehicles were also attacked, and the identities of the assailants are not known, police said.

A portion of the crowd acted in a hostile manner toward officers on the scene, throwing bottles and other objects at them, police said, describing the events as "heavy riots."

Masked men protests vandalized several shops and cars along the streets, and a police helicopter was repeatedly blinded by a laser pointer, police said. Officers have begun moving to make arrests.

Authorities fired water cannons and used pepper spray to disperse the crowds, Hamburg police wrote on Twitter.

Some 8,000 people were in the crowd, and not all of them were violent, police said, adding that about 1,000 people were part of a black bloc anarchist group.

Police have not yet released figures on how many people were arrested and injured during the demonstrations.

On Twitter, police posted photos of large fires and urged bystanders in the area to leave.

More than 100,000 protesters are expected in Hamburg for the summit, which include about 8,000 people considered part of Europe's violent left-wing scene, The Associated Press reported. Some 20,000 police officers have been activated to keep the demonstrations under control amid high tensions.</s>Thousands of anti-capitalist protesters fought with police in Hamburg, Germany, Thursday ahead of the G-20 summit where President Donald Trump and other world leaders will be meeting.

Police in Hamburg were seen using water cannons and tear gas to control the crowd of "Welcome to Hell" demonstrators that mounted to thousands by the evening. Violence broke out at a riverside plaza in the city, where people gathered earlier before starting their march through the city.

Black-hooded protesters attacked a police vehicle with bottles and bricks, breaking its window. Several people were also seen climbing over a wall as others stood in groups, holding up signs.

Police said they repeatedly asked a group of hardcore demonstrators to remove their masks, but with no luck. Dozens of police officers created a blockade to separate the hooded protesters from the demonstration.

THE G-20: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT

More than 100,000 protesters are expected to be in the city during the two-day summit, according to police. Hamburg boosted its police presence with reinforcements from around the country for the G-20 summit. About 20,000 officers are on hand to patrol the northern German city's streets, skies and waterways.

Trump arrived in Hamburg earlier in the day after delivering a speech in Warsaw, Poland, defending Western values and rallying against "dire threats" to civilizations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Trump met privately after his arrival, discussing issues that include North Korea, the situation in the Middle East, the conflict in eastern Ukraine and "some issues on the G-20 agenda." The discussion lasted more than an hour.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel also participated, according to a German government statement.</s>Chaotic images on TV of riot police clashing with protesters were definitely not what host German Chancellor Angela Merkel had in mind as the G-20 summit got underway Thursday.

Police fired water cannon and tear gas at anti-capitalist demonstrators in the streets of Hamburg as protesters failed to remove face coverings or to disperse near the site of the summit, an annual gathering of the leaders of world’s 20 most developed economies.

The clashes erupted shortly after President Trump met with Mrs. Merkel on Thursday evening, local time. Anti-globalization demonstrators, who organized under the banner of “Welcome to Hell,” threw bottles and other objects at police, Hamburg police said. There was no indication that Mr. Trump was in any danger.

Police said demonstrators also marched through a police barricade against orders from law enforcement officials.</s>Anti-G-20 activists riot for second night in Hamburg
Rioting and looting takes place in Altona, Hamburg, particularly in the Elbchaussee area, as police clash with anti-capitalist protestors in the city for a second day. At least 160 police officers are injured and 70 protesters arrested.