Police fired warning shots, injuring an unknown number of people, as riots broke out Friday night in downtown Rotterdam at a demonstration against plans by the government to restrict access for people not vaccinated against COVID-19 to some venues.
Police said on Twitter that “there are injuries in connection with the shots” during the violent unrest.
Riot police used a water cannon in an attempt to drive hundreds of rioters from a central street in the port city.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Video from social media shown on Dutch broadcaster NOS appeared to show a person being shot in Rotterdam, but there was no immediate word on what happened.
Police said on Twitter that it was “still unclear how and by whom” the person was apparently shot.
Late on Friday night, police said downtown Rotterdam remained restive and there was still a heavy police presence on the streets.
Police said they arrested dozens of rioters and expected to detain more.
They said that about seven people were injured, including police officers. They did not give further details.
Photographs in Dutch media showed at least one police vehicle ablaze and another with a bicycle smashed through the windshield.
Local political party Leefbaar Rotterdam condemned the violence on Twitter.
“The center of our beautiful city has this evening transformed into a war zone,” it said. “Rotterdam is a city where you can disagree with things that happen but violence is never, never, the solution.”
Police said on Twitter that rioters started fires and threw fireworks during the rioting and authorities closed the city’s main railway station.
Local media have said gangs of soccer hooligans were involved in the rioting.
The government has said it wants to introduce a law that would allow businesses to restrict the country’s COVID-19 pass system to only people who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 — that would exclude people who test negative.
The country has seen record numbers of infections in the past few days and a new partial lockdown came into force a week ago.
In January, rioting broke out in Rotterdam and other Dutch cities after the government announced a curfew in an attempt to rein in soaring COVID-19 infections.
Earlier on Friday, the government banned fireworks on Dec. 31 for the second straight year.
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