Davos demo violence
January 30, 2011
Police fired rubber bullets and sprayed anti-capitalist demonstrators with water cannon as a demonstration on the final day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, turned violent.
A group of some 120 protesters had gathered near a train station after marching through the ski resort town hosting the meeting of the world's business elite.
Demonstrators threw bottles at riot police, who fired several rounds of rubber bullets and used low-pressure water hoses to break up the crowd.
Before the scuffles, the protesters had waved banners protesting against capitalism and austerity measures on a snow-covered route that took them past the outer perimeter of the meeting.
"The demonstration was largely peaceful. There were some scuffles and small-scale vandalism, but no one was hurt," a police spokesman told the news agency AFP.
More than 5,000 soldiers were drafted in to reinforce police numbers in Davos, which has hosted the forum for more than four decades.
The demonstration was organized by local socialists and green groups, who attribute the routinely low numbers of demo participants each year to the remoteness of the venue.
The violence followed the explosion of a small homemade explosive on Thursday at a hotel housing conference guests. Responsibility for that incident was claimed by Swiss anarchists.
Author: Richard Connor (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Nicole Goebel