Police and protesters clash in Brussels as anti-austerity rally disrupts city
Violent clashes erupted in Brussels between riot police and protesters during a national strike against government austerity measures. While union-led marches remained peaceful, separate groups of youths engaged in vandalism and arson.
Why it matters
The unrest underscores growing social and economic tensions in Europe as governments struggle with public debt and rising costs of living.
Hundreds of youths faced off with riot police in the streets of Brussels on Friday in chaotic scenes on the sidelines of a workers' march, with officers firing water cannons and tear gas at the crowd.Some 30,000 people turned out for the national strike against government austerity measures, police said, with tensions running high after days of student protests inspired by those in France.Dozens of protesters, many of them young, dressed in black and wearing masks, threw rocks and firecrackers at police at the central Brussels railway station, before setting several fires, one to a pile of city bikes and electric scooters.The clashes came after a week of tensions in the city of Liege, where authorities placed a ban on public gatherings as students clashed with police and vandalised shops.
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