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Reuters
Reuters
Politics

Dutch police fire warning shots during riots over COVID-19 measures

Dutch police said they fired several warning shots as a protest against COVID-19 measures turned into rioting in the port city of Rotterdam on Friday.

Several hundred people had gathered to voice opposition to government plans to restrict access to indoor venues to people who have a "corona pass", showing they have been vaccinated or already recovered from an infection.

The pass is currently also available to people who have not been vaccinated, but have proof of a negative test.

The Netherlands re-imposed some lockdown measures last weekend for an initial three weeks in an effort to slow a resurgence of coronavirus contagion, but daily infections have remained at their highest levels since the start of the pandemic.

Police said in a statement that rioters had set fires and thrown fireworks, prompting them to fire warning shots.

Dutch media said police also used water cannon to disperse the crowd and that police vehicles had been set alight.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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