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New riots feared in Copenhagen
02/03/2007 14:48 - (SA)
Copenhagen - Police in Copenhagen braced on Friday for a second day of riots as radical activists protested the eviction of squatters from an underground cultural centre, but the streets were calm at the start of the day.
Police officers were out en masse early on Friday, patrolling the troubled neighbourhoods of Noerrebro and Christianshavn where 217 people were arrested on Thursday after the activists clashed with police.
"We will be on the streets as long as it takes and with as many men as it takes to keep the peace," said police spokesperson Flemming Steen Munch.
Police reinforcements had been called in from across the country, he said.
On Thursday, thousands of youths attacked police after a dawn raid to evict the squatters from the Ungdomshuset, a haven for rebels, punks and squatters since the 1980s when it was given to them by the city of Copenhagen.
Activists threw stones, bottles, pots of paint and firecrackers, and set up barricades, lit fires and overturned vehicles to protest the eviction, with Danish media comparing the scenes to a warzone.
Riot police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators, some of whom were masked.
"We were surprised by the extent of the conflict and the demonstrators' wild violence," Steen Munch said.
The building was recently sold to a fundamental Christian group, which has demanded the eviction of the youths. The group plans to tear the building down.
An August 2006 court ruling ordered the occupants to be evicted from the centre, which they insist belongs to them.
Among the 217 arrested on Thursday were 17 foreigners from France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Lithuania, New Zealand and the United States.
Three police officers and three demonstrators were injured during the clashes, police said.
- AFP
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