Police officers stand in front of a fire set up by demonstrators during a May Day rally in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, May 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
BERLIN (AP) — At least 93 police officers were injured and 354 protesters were detained after traditional May Day rallies in Berlin turned violent, Berlin’s top security official said Sunday.
More than 20 different rallies took place in the German capital on Saturday and the vast majority of them were peaceful. However, a leftist march of 8,000 people through the city’s Neukoelln and Kreuzberg neighborhood, which has often seen clashes in past decades, turned violent. Protesters threw bottles and rocks at officers, and burned garbage containers and wooden pallets in the streets.
“Violence against police officers and a blind, destructive rage has nothing to do with political protest,” Berlin state interior minister Andreas Geisel said.
Geisel condemned the throwing of bottles and rocks and the burning barricades on the streets and especially the violence toward police saying, “The high number of injured officer leaves me stunned. I wish all of those who were injured in the line of duty a quick recovery.”
There’s a nightly curfew in most parts of Germany currently because of the high number of coronavirus infections. But political protests and religious gatherings are exempt from the curfew.
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