Police canceled a planned protest march yesterday outside the G8 summit after demonstrators smashed car windows, threw rocks and attempted to blockade one of the main approach roads to the exclusive Gleneagles resort hosting the summit.
Tayside Police said it called off the march in the village of Auchterarder, expected to draw 5,000 or more people, on the grounds of public safety after consulting with organizers.
But organizer G8 Alternatives accused the police of "disgraceful behavior" in preventing thousands of people the right to stage a peaceful protest.
"This is a serious indictment of British democracy," spokeswoman Gill Hubbard said.
Police said they would turn back busloads of demonstrators who left Edinburgh early in the morning for the march.
The protests had caused apprehension in Auchterarder, a village of 4,000 people 4km northeast of the Gleneagles summit venue.
More than 100 activists, many clad in black and covering their faces with bandanas and wearing hoods, streamed from a makeshift campsite in Stirling in central Scotland, 22km southwest of Gleneagles, where some 5,000 anarchists and anti-globalization protesters are staying.
An Associated Press Television News cameraman said he saw a group of about 100 smashing the windows of parked cars and throwing stones at police. Police said a number of officers were injured, with eight receiving hospital treatment. Tayside Police said 16 people had been arrested in the Gleneagles area.
Police predicted heavy congestion as they closed the M9 highway, the main approach route to Gleneagles from the Scottish capital, Edinburgh.
Police in body armor, helmets and carrying shields formed a chain across the M9 as dozens of protesters ran along the closed highway. Many ran up an embankment and escaped across fields when they got to the police line.
In nearby Bannockburn, protesters -- some wearing black crash helmets and carrying iron bars -- smashed the windshields of parked cars and threw rocks at police vans. A group linked their arms through inflated tire inner tubes and charged a line of riot police blocking the road. Several attacked a police van, hitting it with iron rods and kicking the headlights as the vehicle reversed down a street.
Demonstrators pulled a protective iron grille from the windows of a Burger King restaurant and smashed the glass. One slogan daubed on the wall said: "10,000 Pharaohs, Six Billion Slaves."
Anti-globalization campaigners have vowed to disrupt the summit of the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, who were to meet later yesterday at the tightly secured Gleneagles Hotel.
In Edinburgh, Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof greeted 12 double-decker buses carrying some 1,000 anti-poverty demonstrators who responded to his call to converge on the city for a march later in the day.
Geldof made a point of distinguishing between the Make Poverty History supporters and the violent activists clashing with police.
"These are our people. You must not conflate the two. Some come in peace and dignity and respect, some just come to make trouble. There is no similarity between them," he said.
Geldof said he planned to travel to Gleneagles at some stage of the three-day summit, hoping to address leaders. Asked what his message would be, he said: "Get five minutes' sleep, have a cup of coffee and get Africa back on the road again."
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