G-20 Clashes Leave Dozens of Officers and Activists Injured
Police trucks blasted protesters back with water cannons, and officers physically dragged away a group holding a sit-in at the entrance to the summit grounds after they jeered and yelled at a convoy heading inside
By David Rising ••
There were fireworks Friday on the first day of the G-20 summit. The gathering of the world’s 19 wealthiest nations and the European Union included widespread protests in the streets and a much-anticipated meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump. The U.S. and Russia were also able to reach an agreement on a cease-fire for southwest Syria.
Anti-globalization activists clashed violently with police across the German port city of Hamburg all day Friday, setting cars ablaze, throwing bottles and trying to enter the convention center where Group of 20 leaders tackled topics like international terrorism, climate change and trade issues.
Responding to a second day of protests, police ordered in more than 900 additional officers from across the country to get the clashes under control. At least 196 police officers were injured, dozens of activists had to be taken to the hospital and more than 70 protesters were detained.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the violent protests as "unacceptable."
"I have every understanding for peaceful demonstrations," Merkel said. "But violent demonstrations endanger human lives, they endanger people themselves, they put police officers and security forces in danger, put residents in danger, and so that is unacceptable."
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A man surveys the scene inside a looted Budnikowsky pharmacy following a second night of violent protest on July 8, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany.
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Staff work on the clear-up process at a looted Rewe City convenience store following a second night of violent protest on July 8, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany.
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A smashed car windscreen is seen following a second night of violent protest on July 8, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany.
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A fire burns in the middle of town during an anti-G20 protest on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Authorities are braced for large-scale and disruptive protests as Leaders of the Group of 20 group of nations arrive in Hamburg for the July 7-8 summit.
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A protester lights a flare during an anti-G20 march on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Authorities are braced for large-scale and disruptive protests as Leaders of the Group of 20 group of nations arrive in Hamburg for the July 7-8 summit.
Matthias Schrader/AP
Police officers carry off a demonstrator who blocked a street on the first day of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 7, 2017. The leaders of the Group of 20 meet July 7 and 8.
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Protesters gather to participate in an anti-G20 march on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany.
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Fire crews extinguish a burning car in the street during the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest march on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany.
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Police use water cannons as protesters gather to participate in an anti G-20 march on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany.
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Protesters participate in a peaceful anti-G20 march on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany.
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Police use water cannons against demonstrators at a Hamburg harbor protesting against the G-20 summit on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G-20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts.
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Protesters participate in a peaceful anti-G20 march on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany.
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Protesters participate in a peaceful anti-G20 march on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany.
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A woman walks past a vandalized bank following the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest march on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Authorities are braced for large-scale and disruptive protests as G-20 national leaders arrive in Hamburg for the July 7-8 G-20 summit.
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Fake US currency cascades from an apartment window onto riot police below during the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest march on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts.
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Protesters erect burning barricades in front of the Rote Flora left-wing centre after the "Welcome to Hell" protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts tonight at the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Riot police gather after protesters erected burning barricades in front of the Rote Flora left-wing centre after the "Welcome to Hell" protest march on July 6, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts tonight at the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
Riot police walk down a road after the "Welcome to Hell" protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts tonight at the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Riot police gather after protesters erected burning barricades in front of the Rote Flora left-wing centre after the "Welcome to Hell" protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts tonight at the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
A police water cannon extinguishes a burning barricade in front of the Rote Flora left-wing centre after the "Welcome to Hell" protest march on July 6, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts tonight at the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
A police riot team work through the crowds during the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts.
Matthias Schrader/AP
Police officers help an injured officer during skirmishes with demonstrators on the first day of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 7, 2017.
Matthias Schrader/AP
Police chase demonstrators blocking a road on the first day of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 7, 2017.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Police forces clash with protesters during a march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts and heavy protests are expected tonight at the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
People stand in front of police vehicles during the "Welcome to Hell" protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arrived in Hamburg for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts tonight at the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest.
Markus Schreiber/AP
Thousands of people attend a protest against the G-20 summit in Hamburg, northern Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2017. The leaders of the group of 20 meet July 7 and 8.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Police forces clash with protesters during a march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts and heavy protests are expected tonight at the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Police forces clash with protesters during a march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts and heavy protests are expected tonight at the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Police forces clash with protesters during a march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts and heavy protests are expected tonight at the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Demonstrators protest during a march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts and heavy protests are expected tonight at the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Police forces clash with protesters during a march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts and heavy protests are expected tonight at the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest.
Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Riot police climb a fence to chase people after the "Welcome to Hell" protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts tonight at the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
Protestors are sprayed by police water cannons during the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
Riot police walk down a road during the "Welcome to Hell" protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts tonight at the "Welcome to Hell" anti-G20 protest.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
Protestors are sprayed by police water cannons during the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
A police water cannon is seen during the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
Protestors are sprayed by police water cannons during the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
A woman gestures during the 'Welcome to Hell' anti-G20 protest march on July 6, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Leaders of the G20 group of nations are arriving in Hamburg today for the July 7-8 economic summit and authorities are bracing for large-scale and disruptive protest efforts.
Merkel thanked security forces for their work as the Group of 20 met behind a heavy police presence in a no-go zone that was off-limits to most.
Thousands of officers in full riot gear patrolled as many as 30 different protest marches. Most of the demonstrations were peaceful and creative, but some rioters threw gasoline bombs, iron rods and cobble stones through the city.
As night fell, some lit fires in the streets of the city's Schanzenviertel neighborhood.
In the nearby St. Pauli district, thousands of people danced in the streets to techno and live hip-hop music as the international leaders of the G-20 nations listened to a classical concert at the city's philharmonic under heavy police protection.
More than 20,000 officers were on hand to guard the Hamburg's streets, skies and waterways.
Police trucks blasted protesters back with water cannons, and officers physically dragged away a group holding a sit-in at the entrance to the summit grounds after they jeered and yelled at a convoy heading inside.
Anti-globalization protesters also kept U.S. first lady Melania Trump from joining the spouses of the other world leaders at the summit.
Violence seemed to be escalating on Friday evening as anti-globalization activists forced their way into a closed train station by bending open the iron gates. Police responded by deploying a water cannon outside the Landungsbruecke station.
Protesters repeatedly tried pushing into the no-go zone — among them a group of 22 swimmers from Greenpeace who tried accessing the area from the Elbe River but didn't succeed, police said.
Later on Friday, activists also attempted to get near Hamburg's highly protected philharmonic hall, where international leaders were set to listen to a concert and have dinner together. Greenpeace boats blasted music toward the performance hall to disrupt the leaders' meeting there.
Police condemned the "shocking criminal energy and high potential of violence" on display and tweeted a photograph of an officer with a bloody wound they said was caused by slingshot catapults.
While most of the at least 160 injured officers were hurt only slightly, some had to be taken to the hospital, including an officer whose eye was injured when a firework went off in front of him.
The city's fire department said 11 activists were severely injured and taken to the hospital after falling off a four-meter-tall wall (13 feet) after fleeing from a confrontation with riot police.
Police could not say how many activists were injured in the clashes, but the fire department said that as of Friday morning they had taken 60 protesters to hospitals across the city.
Kathleen Mueller, a 56-year-old protester from Potsdam near Berlin, criticized police for what she said were "brutal responses" to overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations.
Mueller said she'd come to Hamburg to stop rampant consumerism and to tell leaders that "we need to ... rethink our economic systems." She said she saw riot police wrenching apart a peaceful human chain and dragging people off.
"They didn't have to do that, there was no resistance, it was just to cause pain and it shouldn't happen," said Mueller, who was participating in a protest of some 300 people in a park near the summit grounds.
Hamburg resident Kursat Bayazit, 42, expressed frustrations with both the summit and the demonstrations keeping him from getting to his work as a landscaper.
"Yesterday, there were big problems," Bayazit said while taking a stroll with his 2-year-old daughter in the St. Pauli neighborhood that had seen heavy clashes Thursday night.
He pointed across the street to a large, burned-out garbage can with an empty fire extinguisher lying nearby and the pungent smell of smoke still in the air.
"They burned that garbage can and in other places cars, it really scared my daughter," Bayazit said.
However, not all St. Pauli residents seemed to share Bayazit's frustration regarding the chaos overtaking Hamburg during the G-20 summit.
Few had their stores and homes boarded up and some residents seemed to welcome the protesters. Three young men wearing anti-summit T-shirts listened to reggae music on their balcony.
A few buildings away, banners hung from a window saying, "Granny and grandpa are against G-20" and "G-20 - go get beer." Some bars had put up signs saying, "protesters welcome."
Sex workers on the city's famous Reeperbahn amusement strip could be seen dancing to the music of the activists on Thursday night and giving a thumbs-up to those passing by.
