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The Old Town Square turned into a battlefield after protests

  • Writer: annakubeskova
    annakubeskova
  • Oct 19, 2020
  • 1 min read

More than 100 detained protesters and 20 injured police officers - this is the result of Sunday's protests against government anticoronavirus measures in Prague's Old Town Square.


Hundreds of people filled Prague's Old Town Square already on Sunday early afternoon. However, the demonstration of football and hockey fans was announced to 2pm. The event officially convened the Civic Dissatisfaction Movement and main reasons were government measures connected with the spread of coronavirus, the suspension of sports competitions or the dissatisfaction with the work of the media.


According to the current restrictions, a maximum of 500 people can take part in the protest, who must be divided into groups of twenty, with distance of at least two meters between the groups and all with their mouths and noses covered. Despite the measures, around 2,000 protesters gathered and many of them did not have face masks and did not keep distance. For these reasons, the city called for an end of the protest after about an hour. However, there was no peaceful end.

The demonstration degenerated into a battle where some of the participants attacked the police with pyrotechnics and paving stones. Police pushed out most of the protesters with firecrackers, tear gas and handlers. They also used water cannons. Several protesters and police were injured.


The demonstration was condemned by many of politicians, including the Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO), who said he was shocked at how ruthless and selfish some citizens are who threaten themselves and others.

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Czech news in English, for expats and for other people interested in our country. The articles do not include our opinion and they are purely informative.

      Sources

  • CzechTV 

  • Seznamzpravy.cz

  • iRozhlas

  • DenikN

  • ČTK

  • other sources noted

  • Source of the pictures: Pixabay, other source is noted 

© 2020 by the Inside Scoop.

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