DAR AL HARB - E.U. / GERMANY / DENMARK: RIOTS BREAK OUT IN COPENHAGEN AS WELL AS GERMANY

Youth riots rock Copenhagen, Hamburg and Hannover

At least 220 people were detained during Thursday night's riots in Copenhagen which also spilled over to two German cities, Hamburg and Hannover, media reports said Friday.

Danish protestors set several cars and garbage cans on fire and errected street barricades in Copenhagen after riot police and anti-terror units moved in to evict a popular youth center in the Danish capital.

At least five people were injured in the melee including a police officer.

The youth center was occupied by mainly radical leftist and anarchist teenagers in 1981 and has meanwhile been sold to a church.

Police had to use tear gas to disperse the rioting crowd who hurled stones, chairs and firecrakers at the security forces.

Copenhagen had already been last December the scene of intense street clashes between police and demonstrators over the issue of the youth center.

Meanwhile street protests in Hamburg and Hannover, voicing solidarity with the Copenhagen demonstrators, turned also violent.

In Hamburg, police prevented 800 protestors from moving towards the Danish consulate based in the north German port city.

At least 14 people were arrested following scuffles with security forces.

Demonstatrators lobbed bottles and stones at police, slightly injuring an officer.

In Hannover, some 20 masked protestors smashed the windows of a police car and private vehicle.

Several other peaceful demonstrations in support of the Danish youth center occupiers took place in German cities among them Braunschweig, Goettingen, Flensburg, Karlsruhe, Mainz und Frankfurt on the Main River.

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Copenhagen on alert after riots

Denmark is counting the cost after a night of anarchy on the streets of Copenhagen. The violence erupted after police evicted left-wing squatters from a building used as a youth centre in a multi-ethnic, working class neighbourhood.

The unrest spread to the nearby hippy enclave of Christiania. In the hours that followed gangs of youths had running battles with police.

One officer and two protesters were injured. It is reported one protester blew off his hand while trying to throw a firework.

Almost two hundred people have been arrested since yesterday's eviction.

It brought to a head a conflict that has been simmering since 2000 when the local government sold the youth centre to a religious group. Left-wing activists have used it as a base since 1982.


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1) Youth riots rock Copenhagen, Hamburg and Hannover

2) Copenhagen on alert after riots