63 Arrested in Copenhagen Clashes
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – A protest by hundreds of youth activists turned violent early Sunday, with protesters setting fire to street barricades and cars and smashing shop windows, police said. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Authorities said 63 people were arrested as riot police clashed with rock-throwing youth in the Noerrebro district of Copenhagen.
The unrest started after a demonstration late Saturday commemorating the Youth House, a makeshift cultural center for the city’s anarchists and disaffected youth that was demolished in March.
“It’s six months since we cleared the house there, and they want to show they’ve not forgotten,” police spokesman Mads Firlings said. “Almost immediately they started building barricades and throwing rocks through the windows of shops and banks.”
He said police used tear gas to disperse the crowds who set fires to barricades and cars, including a police vehicle that had been abandoned by officers fleeing the angry mob.
The situation had calmed down Sunday morning as crews started cleaning up streets charred by fire and littered with broken glass and garbage, police spokesman Gunnar Noerager said.
He said one police officer received minor injuries when a tear gas canister accidentally exploded inside a police van.
In March, hundreds of people were arrested in several days of street violence when police evicted squatters living in the graffiti-sprayed brick building.