Dozens of police officers were injured in a police operation at a squat court in Berlin on Wednesday, police said. Occupied by hard-line purists for years, the building, located in the eastern district of Friedrichshain, is one of the last remaining symbols of the German capital’s occupation scene. Police said 60 officers were wounded in the clashes.
A fire inspection is scheduled for Thursday at 8 a.m. by representatives of the building’s owners, but the builders in Berlin have made clear they will fight back hard.
Police had prepared a large-scale operation and sealed off the area on Wednesday afternoon. According to the first police estimates, they were attacked by about 200 rioters who hid their faces. Barricades were also erected and set on fire in three places of the street in question, Riegerstrasse.
Police defended the operation on Twitter. After all, emergency services and firefighters were pelted with stones, including from rooftops. The fires were finally put out with water cannons and the barricades removed with armored cars. In the afternoon the surfaces were examined.