Germany: Violent confrontation between police and anti-lockdown protesters

As over 20,000 people took to the streets to oppose the anti-pandemic lockdown, protesters attacked several members of Germany's security forces in Kassel, according to authorities.

Violent clashes between various groups of protesters were also reported, according to DW.

"We will not tolerate such attacks... This is not what peaceful protests look like," local police said on Twitter.

Many protesters were chanting "Wir sind das Volk" ("We are the people"), a slogan taken from the peaceful protests that led to the end of communist East Germany in 1989.

Some protesters even tried to break through a police barrier, prompting the police to use a water cannon to disperse the demonstrators outside the area authorised for the rally, DW reported.

Police said they had used mace and batons in scuffles with protesters.

The protest has been co-organised by the Querdenken (Lateral Thinking) movement, a group that has been behind many such demonstrations during the pandemic. These protests are considered by experts as having considerable potential as superspreader events.

Germany is officially in the grip of a third wave of the pandemic, with more than 16,000 new infections reported on Saturday, reported DW.

The country has so far reported 2,658,851 infections and 74,657 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.