Police and protesters clash near G8 summit

By Jeremy Lovell

GLENEAGLES, Scotland (Reuters) – Riot police clashed with
protesters close to the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland on
Wednesday after a demonstration against Group of Eight (G8)
leaders ended in chaos.

Around 100 officers in full riot gear mounted a baton
charge to drive protesters away from a security fence
surrounding the hotel, where President Bush and his G8
counterparts were due to meet.

Demonstrators from a range of anti-capitalist,
anti-globalization and anarchist groups scattered across a
field when the police charged. A handful threw stones at the
police.

By 1600 GMT, hundreds of protesters were still in the
field, facing police, who were reinforced with units flown in
by helicopters that rattled the windows of the summit hotel.
Officers on horseback were also brought in to restore order.

The clashes erupted following an otherwise peaceful march
from the small town of Auchterarder in central Scotland to
within a few hundred meters (yards) of the nearby hotel.

The clashes echoed violence earlier in the day in towns
close to the heavily fortified summit venue.

A handful of hooded protesters broke car windows, threw
bricks and clashed with riot police in the nearby town of
Stirling. Police said they arrested 60 people, and eight
officers needed hospital treatment.

Protesters also put up impromptu barricades and threw
obstacles on the roads around Gleneagles, blocking parts of the
main highway in central Scotland for more than four hours.

Police needed cutting gear to remove some activists who
chained themselves together across the north-south highway.

The violence was nothing like as serious as clashes at
previous G8 summits such as Genoa, Italy, in 2001 or Evian,
France, in 2003, but will heighten fears that radical groups
may try to hijack the summit, which runs until Friday.

Most of those on the march from Auchterarder said they
wanted a peaceful protest against Bush and the leaders of
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia.

As usual at such events, protesters highlighted a wide
range of issues they want G8 leaders to address.

One woman was dressed as a mermaid, her face painted blue
and her hair dyed green. She held a sign pointing to her head
which read “sea level in 2050,” a reference to fears that
global warming will force sea levels to rise to dangerous
levels.

“I never, ever march, but I thought I should today, because
I support all these issues,” said Susan McColl, an author in
her fifties who lives on the west coast of Scotland.

Other demonstrators claimed membership of “The Clandestine
Insurgent Rebel Clown Army.” Many wore face paint, wigs and
colorful costumes.

(Additional reporting by Gideon Long)