LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA (BLOOMBERG, AFP) - Slovenian police used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters marching against restrictions designed to curb the coronavirus.
Protesters hurled granite cobblestones, pyrotechnic devices and bottles at police officers, public broadcaster RTVSLO reported late Thursday (Nov 5).
Several people were injured and taken to hospital but there were no more details about the extent of their injuries.
It was the first time that Slovenian protests, which started in the spring against corruption and the new government, turned violent. Organisers of the earlier peaceful protests have distanced themselves from Thursday's rally.
It was also the first time that water cannon were used in the European Union nation of two million people since mass demonstrations in 2012, when anti-graft protests helped topple Prime Minister Janez Jansa's second government.
Slovenia imposed the second lockdown in mid-October as the number of new coronavirus infections threatened to destabilise its health-care system.
The nation is the fourth-worst hit in the EU in 14-day cumulative number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people, according to data by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. A record 30 coronavirus-related patients died on Wednesday.
The measures include a curfew, restrictions on travel and the closure of schools and non-essential shops.
Thursday's protest, organised by activists who called themselves the Slovenian branch of cyber group Anonymous, started late in the afternoon and led to several injuries and arrests as the protesters clashed with police.
Several hundred people gathered in front of the Slovenian Parliament building, with some attacking police officers who warned them that public gatherings were banned due to the coronavirus shutdown.
During the clashes and skirmishes that continued in parts of central Ljubljana for more than two hours, a photographer was also injured, according to an Agence France-Presse journalist at the scene.
Private POP TV reported that at least three people had been injured while Ljubljana's police chief Stanislav Vrecar told reporters that "around 10 police officers" had been lightly wounded, mostly by stones hurled at them.
Interior Minister Ales Hojs told public TV that football hooligans had been among the crowd.
While Slovenia was relatively unscathed by the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, the government last month ordered a second shutdown to try to halt a surge in infections.
