Dozens of people have reportedly been arrested in two Dutch cities after anti-lockdown protesters clashed with police on Sunday.
The Associated Press reported that at least 155 people were arrested in the cities of Eindhoven and Amsterdam during two illegal demonstrations that quickly turned violent when protesters attacked officers with stones.
The country is in the middle of a lockdown to halt the spread of COVID-19, which includes a 9pm daily curfew and occupancy restrictions in businesses and public spaces. The country has now experienced two consecutive weekends of violence by anti-lockdown protesters.
Several vehicles have been set on fire near Eindhoven Central Station, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, which also reported that police, including some on horseback, used tear gas, water cannons and police dogs to quell the violence.
Dutch Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus told the AP in a statement that the violence ‘has nothing to do with demonstrating against corona'[virus] measures. “
“This is just criminal behavior; people who deliberately attack the police, riot police, journalists and other aid workers, ” said Grapperhaus.
Sunday’s violence followed the burning of a COVID-19 testing facility in a small town northeast of Amsterdam by several young people, the AP said.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Netherlands has seen a total of just under 950,000 cases of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, and the number of new cases fell after a peak in December that reached nearly 10,000 new cases per day.