Anti-lockdown protesters in the Netherlands set fires, looted shops and fought with police for a third consecutive night of riots after a strict curfew was imposed – with a mayor warning that the country was “headed for civil war.”
At least 184 people were arrested during Monday night’s ongoing riots, while at least 10 officers were injured as police in some cities fight back with water cannons and tear gas, officials said.
So far, rioters have struck in at least 20 cities and towns across the Netherlands since Saturday, when the country was forced into its first curfew since World War II.
“We have not seen so much violence in forty years,” said Koen Simmers of the NPB police union in the television program Nieuwsuur.
Monday’s violence has left a trail of looted shops and burnt cars in cities such as Rotterdam, The Hague and the capital Amsterdam, as well as a nearby city, Haarlem, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
About 1,850 fines were handed out for breaking the curfew, along with nearly 200 arrests, officials told national broadcaster NOS.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned the “unacceptable” uprising and said most of the country objected to it “With horror.”
“This has nothing to do with protesting or fighting for freedom. It is criminal violence and we will treat it as such, ”he tweeted.
Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra said the country “is not going to capitulate to a few idiots”, according to the NOS.
Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus rejected allegations by rioters that the violence was fueled by the curfew and told NOS that “you don’t have to raid a shop”.
John Jorritsma, the mayor of Eindhoven, one of the cities hardest hit by the riots, called the ‘completely anarchist’ gangs the ‘scum of the earth’.
“They talk about freedom and dictatorship, but in the meantime they demolish the shops and the station here, they set fire to cars and police officers at the station,” he told the NOS.
“We are headed for civil war,” he warned.
The curfew – which prohibits most, but essential employees from leaving from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. – was because the Netherlands was already under the toughest measures since the start of the pandemic. Bars and restaurants had been closed since October, and schools and non-essential stores had been closed since December.
It also came when new infections seemed to be on the decline – but implemented out of fear of the spread of the highly contagious mutations that started in the UK.
Even before curfew, bars and restaurants were closed in October, and schools and non-essential shops have been closed since December.
On Tuesday morning, the Netherlands counted 966,194 confirmed coronavirus cases with 13,686 deaths – far fewer than many of its European neighbors, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.
With pole wires