A COVID-19 test facility was set on fire in the Netherlands during riots on the first night of a new curfew – with the police using water cannons against protesters as the violence broke out on Sunday.
Local media video of Urk, a fishing village about 50 miles northeast of Amsterdam, showed a mob breaking into the portable test facility on Saturday night and setting it on fire.
On Sunday morning, only a burnt-out shell remained, with police saying it happened on a night when protesters were throwing rocks and fireworks in an attempt to destroy police cars.
The violence came as a strict curfew – the nation’s first since World War II – forbade people from leaving 9:00 pm to 4:30 am
Early Sunday, at least 25 people were arrested and more than 3,600 fined for violating the curfew, police said.
That number was expected to increase 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 large 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 zone” to give police the power to search people for weapons.
Police in Eindhoven also used a water and tear gas cannon against a crowd of hundreds of protesters, including supporters of the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA.
Eindhoven police said they had made at least 30 arrests in the late afternoon and warned people to stay away from the city center amid clashes. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Schools and non-essential stores in the Netherlands have been closed since mid-December, after the closure of bars and restaurants two months earlier.
Parliament voted last week to impose a curfew amid fears that the highly contagious mutation in the UK would cause an increase in cases, although new infections are generally decreasing.
Violators can be fined $ 115, and the only exceptions to curfew include medical emergencies, people performing essential tasks and people walking their dogs. It should last at least until February 9th.
As of Sunday, the Netherlands had reported just over 960,000 infections with 13,646 deaths, far less than the most affected European nations such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.
With Post Wires