AMSTERDAM, Jan.2 (Reuters) – Anti-pack police used batons to disperse a crowd of several thousand gathered in Amsterdam on Sunday to protest the containment measures and the COVID-19 vaccination.
Public gatherings of more than two people are banned in the Netherlands under restrictions imposed in an attempt to stem the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus while the healthcare system is already under strain.
At least 30 people were arrested after heat fires in which four law enforcement officers were injured, police said in a statement.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema had issued an emergency order allowing police to vacate the museum district in the city center after protesters defied the ban on assembling.
Protesters, most of whom did not wear masks or abide by social distancing rules, marched through the day playing music and holding yellow umbrellas in opposition to government measures.
Since December 19, the Netherlands has been in a new lockdown, the government having ordered the closure of all non-essential businesses until at least January 14. (Report Hilde Verweij, edited by Anthony Deutsch, French version Laetitia Volga)