Protest against Covid-19 restrictions turns violent in Brussels
- Demonstrators were protesting against rules imposed in October that oblige people to show Covid-19 passes to access bars and restaurants
- Police fired tear gas and used water cannon on Sunday to disperse protesters pelting officers with cobblestones and fireworks
Police fired tear gas and used water cannon on Sunday to disperse protesters pelting officers with cobblestones and fireworks as a demonstration in Brussels over government-imposed Covid-19 restrictions turned violent.
A few thousand protesters marched peacefully through the centre of the Belgian capital to the neighbourhood which hosts the headquarters of European Union institutions, where the demonstration reached its end point.
In the EU quarter a group of protesters wearing black hoods and chanting “liberte” (freedom) started to throw stones at the police, who reacted with tear gas and water cannons, according to footage and reports from Reuters journalists present.
Demonstrators were protesting rules imposed in October that oblige people to show Covid-19 passes to access bars and restaurants.
“I can’t bear discrimination in any form, and now there’s the vaccine pass which is discriminatory, sanctions for (unvaccinated) carers which are discriminatory too, there’s mandatory vaccination which is heading our way,” one protester, martial arts teacher Alain Sienaort, said.