A series of violence and street fighting was started by the actions of squatters who occupied several houses. The police later evacuated them. Activists from the Connewitz district, a stronghold of left-wing radicalism, called for a demonstration in support of squatting, liberation from capitalism, and so-called gentrification – the displacement of less mobile people from their home due to rising real estate prices.
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Disagreement with the evacuation of the house quickly turned into violence that erupted against the police, confirmed the head of the Leipzig police Torsten Schultz. Radicals destroyed cars, set fires in the streets and attacked police. A demonstration was called on Saturday.
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The protest against expensive housing turned into a three-day rampage of left-wing radicals.
Photo: Hendrik Schmidt, CTK / AP
At the beginning, five hundred people took part in it, later more were added. “As soon as the crowd marched, stones began to fall on the police, pyrotechnics were set on fire,” said local police spokeswoman Mandy Heimann. Police tried to end the operation, but skirmishes continued in the streets.
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After midnight on Saturday, around 150 people continued their violent actions. They built barricades, set fire to garbage cans, destroyed trams. The pilot of the police helicopter monitoring the situation was blinded by radicals with a laser. So far, 15 people have been detained. Two police officers were injured and one police car was destroyed, which the protesters set on fire. The shelf has not yet quantified the damage.
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