Police, protesters clash during May Day rallies in Berlin

By Oliver Towfigh Nia

BERLIN (AA) - May Day demonstrations in Berlin on Sunday evening were overshadowed by street clashes between police and mostly young radical leftist protesters as well as anarchist groups, according to local media reports.

Black-clad protesters threw bottles, firecrackers and stones at baton-wielding riot police, forcing them to use pepper spray.

Several protesters were arrested and injured as a result of the skirmishes, the Berlin-based daily Der Tagesspiegel reported.

Organizers claimed the number of participants at Berlin’s so-called “Revolutionary May 1 demonstration” was more than 14,000.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets all over Germany to mark International Labor Day.

While the May Day demonstrations were organized by trade unions and radical leftist and anarchist groups, far-right groups and critics of the country’s coronavirus measures also took part in separate marches across Germany.

Thousands of police officers were deployed along the demonstration routes, with sporadic unrest emerging among both left- and right-wing extremist protesters.