Rostock quiet after anti-G8 rally turns violent

Rostock, Germany (dpa) – German police Sunday counted 433 injured officers and around 60 demonstrators seeking hospital treatment, following an anti-G8 rally in the northern city of Rostock that erupted into a full-scale riot.

Police said 30 of the officers had suffered serious injuries including broken bones, as around 2,000 violent protestors among the estimated 30,000 at the rally tore up paving stones to hurl at police and threw petrol bombs.

The organizers put the number participating in the rally, under the slogan, “Another World is Possible,” at 80,000. The protest was aimed at the G8 summit scheduled to begin Wednesday at the resort of Heiligendamm some 25 kilometres away.

Both police and organizers said an unprovoked attack on a police vehicle had sparked the violence, but the organizers were critical of subsequent police tactics.

“The police did not contribute to de-escalation,” said Monty Schaedel, spokesman for the Rostock Action Alliance. He called the police response “clumsy and unprofessional.”