Riot police officers approach anti-NATO activists who set fire to an lbis hotel near the Europe bridge, east of Strasbourg. --PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS - POLICE detained more than 325 people during violent protests before and during the Nato summit in Strasbourg, officials said on Sunday.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said he wants those convicted of crimes to be punished 'with extreme severity.' A hotel, a customs station and a tourist office were burned down in the historic city in the eastern Alsace region near the German border, the prefecture, or local government, said.
Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said that some 2,000 people 'known in their countries for their extremism and their violence' were at the protests.
Greeks, Germans and Spaniards were among those arrested, Sarkozy said on the TF1 TV station. He defended the 'extraordinary work' of the nearly 9,000 police present for the summit who were backed by 1,500 soliders.
Many peaceful demonstrators said police blocked them from holding peaceful protests. -- AP
