Dutch police turned a water cannon on hundreds of anti-lockdown protestors who were taking part in a banned protest against the Dutch government and its tough coronavirus lockdown.
Police on horseback also moved in to break up the demonstration on a large square ringed by museums, including the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam municipality said riot police took action to disperse the crowd because people weren’t adhering to social distancing measures. Few of the protestors wore masks, which are not mandatory, and most did not respect social distancing rules.
By mid-afternoon, the square was empty apart from dozens of police, although some protesters remained in streets nearby.
The demonstration had been banned earlier in the week because of fears that too many people would attend and not stick to social distancing.
The protest in Amsterdam happened as ministers in the Netherlands’ caretaker government were meeting in The Hague to discuss options to rein in the spread of the coronavirus, including the possibility of imposing a curfew for the first time since the pandemic began.
