A COVID-19 test facility was set on fire in the Netherlands during the riots on the first night of a new strict curfew; police later used water cannons against protesters as violence intensified on Sunday.
Video from local media in Urk, a fishing village about 50 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam, showed a bursting crowd at the portable test facility on Saturday night and set it on fire.
On Sunday morning, only one shell was left burning, and police said a night came when riot police fired stones and fireworks to try to destroy police cars.
The violence came as a strict curfew, the first in the nation since World War II, which banned people from leaving at 9pm until 4:30 p.m.
As of early Sunday, at least 25 people had been arrested and more than 3,600 were fined for breaching the curfew, according to police.
That number was expected to rise on Sunday, as numerous riots broke out in several cities across the country.
In the Dutch capital Amsterdam, police used a water cannon on Sunday to disperse protesters in a major square surrounded by museums, including one for Dutch Impressionist master Van Gogh.
It was the same square where 143 people were arrested during similar protests a week ago, with Mayor Femke Halsema designating it as a “high-risk area” to give police the power to get weapons in the people.
Eindhoven police also used a tear gas and tear gas cannon against a crowd of hundreds of protesters, including supporters of the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA.
Eindhoven police said they made at least 30 arrests in the afternoon and warned people to move away from the city center amid the clashes. No injuries were reported immediately.
Schools and non-essential shops in the Netherlands have already been closed since mid-December, following the closure of bars and restaurants two months earlier.
Last week, Parliament voted to impose a curfew amid fears that the highly contagious mutation in the UK would cause an increase in cases, although new infections have generally declined.
Violators can receive a $ 115 fine and the only exceptions to the curfew are medical emergencies, people doing essential work, and people walking their dogs. It must last until at least February 9th.
As of Sunday, the Netherlands had reported just over 960,000 infections with 13,646 deaths, far fewer than the most affected European nations such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
With mail cables