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Christmas unrest in Stockholm suburb

For the second night running unrest broke out in the Stockholm suburb of Tensta. A massive police presence managed to gain control of the situation in the early hours of Christmas Eve.

Published: 24 December 2008 13:37 CET

The Local reported on Tuesday that the fire service had come under attack from stone-throwing youths in the predominantly immigrant-occupied area of Tensta in north west Stockholm on Monday evening.

When police units arrived at the scene youngsters were found to have set fire to car tyres, rubbish bins and a skip.

Jannes Hedlund at Stockholm county police described Tuesday’s rioting as in principle a repeat of the events of the night before.

“Among other things they had set fire to a skip and thrown a Molotov cocktail at a police vehicle,” Hedlund said.

The police were prepared for the possibility of renewed unrest and had deployed eight specially trained units to the area. Hedlund said that he believed that similar preparations were in force for any potential trouble on Christmas Eve.

Several cars were also set alight in Vårberg in southern Stockholm, although local police were not connecting the incidents to the unrest in Tensta.

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Dozens of police injured during riots at Berlin’s last hold-out squat

Sixty police officers were injured in riots that erupted Wednesday at one of Berlin's last squats ahead of disputed fire protection checks on the building.

Published: 17 June 2021 09:31 CEST
Dozens of police injured during riots at Berlin's last hold-out squat
Burning barricades in the Rigaer St. on June 16th. Photo: dpa | Andreas Rabenstein

Its facade covered in murals and anti-capitalist graffiti, the occupied building at 94 Rigaer Strasse is among the squats that mushroomed across the city after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Numerous attempts have been made in recent years to clear the squat, but each time they have ended in violence.

Ahead of Thursday’s planned fire protection inspection, police had declared the zone a restricted area and banned all demonstrations in the environs.

But as officers arrived on the scene to secure the area, they were met with a hail of stones flung from roofs and the street.

Firecrackers were also hurled from windows and barricades set up by far-left activists were set on fire.

Police said officers were attacked by “around 200 people from the street and from the roof with stones”.

“Material was brought on the street and set on fire,” they added on Twitter.

As water cannons were brought in to put out the fires, officers partially withdrew from the scene.

But they later returned, backed by climbing experts, who were helping them get on the roof of the building to remove stones placed there by residents, added police.

Officials have planned a heavy deployment lasting into Thursday.

Berlin’s interior minister Andreas Geisel vowed a tough crackdown on the militants, saying there can be no special treatment or a “law for Rigaer Strasse”.

Rigaer 94 has been branded by Germany’s domestic security service as the centre of Berlin’s anarchist scene.

While some want to see the counter-culture bastion wiped off the capital’s map, others have defended it as a vestige of an old Berlin rapidly disappearing as property prices and rents rise sharply.

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