DENMARK: At least 400 youths are arrested following rioting over a new youth house

Four hundred and thirty-six people were arrested in Copenhagen on Saturday (October 6) after demonstrators evicted from a youth centre six months ago tried to occupy a different building. According to police, this was the highest number of arrests at a single event on record. About three thousand people gathered in the afternoon for what was supposed to be a peaceful march to the building in the outskirts of the capital which they had announced they would occupy. Organisers urged the youths not to provoke the police by throwing things at them. After a while they were blocked by the police. When the police refused to move away, some of the demonstrators started to climb over police cars. Police responded with teargas and then moved in for the arrests. No injuries were reported according to the police. The demonstrators failed to occupy the building. The conflict over the youth centre has been simmering since 2000, when the local government sold the building to a religious group. Left-wing activists had used it as a base since 1982 but were evicted in March, which led to violent street clashes and hundreds of arrests. Among the arrested journalists were Scotsman David Smith, who travelled to Copenhagen to cover the story, who found the arrest quite unnecessary "As far as I am aware, not unless you are breaking the law. Unless you do something to break the law, you should not be arrested. You should not be arrested for standing around trying to document a story and doing your professional duties. ," David Smith told Reuters TV after the release.

ITN Source | October 7, 2007

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