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Police and protesters clash near G8 summit

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 July 2005, 11:39 CDT

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)

Source: REUTERS

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