URK, Netherlands (AP) – Rioters set fire in the center of the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven and pelted police with stones on Sunday during a banned demonstration against the coronavirus, while officers responded with tear gas and water cannons, arresting at least 30 people .
Police in Amsterdam’s capital also used a water cannon to disperse a banned anti-lockdown demonstration in a large square surrounded by museums. The video showed the police spraying people grouped against a wall of the Van Gogh Museum.
It was the worst violence to hit the Netherlands since the pandemic started and the second consecutive Sunday that the police in Amsterdam collided with protesters. The country has been in a difficult situation since mid-December, which will last at least until February 9.
In Eindhoven, 125 kilometers south of Amsterdam, a central square near the central station was littered with rocks, bicycles and broken glass. The crowd of hundreds of protesters was believed to include supporters of the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA, which had attempted to demonstrate in the city.
Eindhoven police said they had made at least 30 arrests by the end of the afternoon and warned people to stay out of the city center during the clashes. Trains to and from the station were discontinued and local media reported looting at the station.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The violence came a day after anti-curfew rioters set fire to a coronavirus testing facility in the Dutch fishing village of Urk.
Video from Urk, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Amsterdam, showed youth breaking into the coronavirus testing facility near the village’s port before it was set on fire Saturday night.
The lockdown has been imposed by the Dutch government to stem the spread of the more transmissible variant of the corona virus.
Police said they fined more than 3,600 people nationwide for violating the curfew which ran from 9:00 pm Saturday to 4:30 am Sunday and arrested 25 people for violating curfew or for violence.
Police and municipal officials released a statement on Sunday expressing their anger at the riots, “from throwing fireworks and stones to smashing police cars and burning the test site as a deep issue.”
“This is not only unacceptable but a slap in the face, especially for the local health authority staff who are doing everything they can in the testing center to help people of Urk,” said local authorities, adding that curfew would be strict. maintained for the rest of the week.
On Sunday, all that remained of the portable test facility was a burnt-out grenade.
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Associated Press writer Mike Corder in Otterlo contributed.
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