Violence breaks out on sidelines of BLM protest in Belgium

Several police officers were wounded when violence and looting broke out on the sidelines of a Black Lives Matter demonstration in the eastern Belgian city of Liege on Saturday, police said.

The marchers were protesting at the arrest of a woman for “rebellion” in the city on Monday who has since accused the police of racism.

The police have rejected the charge and claimed that the woman had resisted arrest.

The spokeswoman said that on Saturday “young people joined the group of peaceful protesters and then left the demonstration to go and wreck the city centre”.

They “threw stones at the central police station and police vehicles”, she told AFP.

The spokeswoman later said more than 250 officers with three water cannon dispersed the crowds.

“Nine injured people were taken to hospital, including five police officers,” she said, adding that arrests were in progress.

She earlier said one officer had been taken to hospital after being knocked to from their motorcycle and assaulted.

“They ransacked a whole McDonald’s,” said the spokeswoman in the city in Belgium’s French-speaking Wallonia region.

Police reinforcements were being deployed to deal with the trouble and by late Saturday the city centre calm had been restored.

The police urged citizens not to go to the city centre, and the mayor had told shops in the affected area to close.

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