Police Clash with Anti-Lockdown Protesters in Hamburg (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – German police clashed with a large crowd of demonstrators who gathered to protest against a sanctioned anti-lockdown rally in Hamburg.
Police had to intervene after a small group of about 120 counter-protesters, many of them clad in black hoodies, repeatedly ignored police requests to stay clear of the ‘Vigil for the Basic Law’ rally against the lockdown measures on Saturday, RT reported.
The participants of the rally denounced the government’s response to the outbreak, which has seen some 177,850 testing positive for COVID-19, including 8,216 who have died as a result of the disease.
One of the speakers at the rally argued that more people have died due to planned surgeries being postponed than from the virus itself. There have also been calls to make future vaccinations voluntary, although the authorities have never said that the coronavirus shot would be mandatory.
Several dozen rallies for and against the lockdown measures were also held in Berlin, including outside the Reichstag building, home to the German parliament.
Some 1000 police were deployed to ensure social distancing. In the wake of the protests, some 180 people faced administrative and criminal charges for violating the restrictions, including The Infectious Diseases Protection Act, police said.
