Security

More than 200 Arrests in Germany After Gen Z Protests Turn Violent

AI SUMMARY

German police arrested over 200 people following violent clashes in multiple cities after largely peaceful Gen Z protests.

German police arrested more than 200 people on Saturday night following violent clashes in Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Berlin.
The main daytime protests were organized by the Gen Z Regelt initiative in over 30 cities to demand better education funding, relief from rising living costs, and opposition to revived compulsory military service.
After dark, radical groups erected barricades and threw stones, bottles, and firecrackers at police officers.
Police responded with water cannons and special units in several locations.
In Frankfurt, masked groups smashed shop windows and looted businesses, including a gun store where at least two firearms were stolen before police intervened.
Police arrested one suspect in Frankfurt, recovered the stolen weapons, and reported over 30 provisional arrests.
In Hamburg, authorities detained 120 people after protesters erected burning barricades near the central bus station.
Eleven police officers were injured during the violence in Hamburg.
Police in Berlin temporarily detained up to 56 people during an evening demonstration in the Mitte district.
Twenty-seven police officers sustained minor injuries in Berlin as protesters threw stones, bottles, eggs, and firecrackers, and blocked a tram.
In Cologne, police detained at least five people after smaller groups clashed with officers near the city's cathedral.
Cologne Police Chief Johannes Hermanns condemned the extremists for infiltrating and disrupting peaceful demonstrations.