Covid riots in Netherlands lead to seven more arrests

Seven rioters have been arrested after fires were set in the streets and fireworks were thrown at officers in The Hague.

The unrest came a day after police opened fire on protesters in Rotterdam amid what the port city’s mayor called “an orgy of violence” that broke out at a protest against coronavirus restrictions.

Local media outlet Regio 15 reported that rioters threw bicycles, wooden pallets and motorised scooters on one of the fires.

A rioter reportedly threw a rock through the window of a passing ambulance carrying a patient, luckily no one was injured.

Police said in a tweet that seven people were arrested in The Hague and five officers were injured, while one needed treatment in a hospital.

The rioting in The Hague was on a smaller scale than the battles on the streets of Rotterdam on Friday night, when police said that three rioters were hit by bullets and investigations were underway to establish if they were shot by police.

Elsewhere in the Netherlands, two football matches in the top professional league had to be briefly halted after fans – banned from matches under a partial lockdown in force in the Netherlands for a week – broke into stadiums in the towns of Alkmaar and Almelo on Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday, two protests against Covid-19 measures went off peacefully in Amsterdam and the southern city of Breda.