Today, 22:20 • 2 minutes reading time
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The police had their hands full on Sunday evening in the city center of Groningen with rioters who committed destruction and threw fireworks. This led to Mayor Koen Schuiling announcing an emergency order for the city center around 10 p.m.
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The emergency order applies to the entire area within the deep ring ring until 5 a.m. on Monday morning. This means, among other things, that the police may stop anyone who enters the deep ring and has nothing to do there if there is reason to do so.
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Call to riot
The fact that it came to this had to do with a call that was made via online channels to start rioting in Groningen.
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Around 8 p.m., small groups of people gathered at the main station in Groningen, where the police – who had learned of the call to riot – carried out identity checks and checked bags. A man was arrested for carrying fireworks. The Mobile Unit was also on standby.
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Grim atmosphere
Many people, mostly young people, then moved to the city center. There, groups of several people are formed in a short time, various fireworks bombs are set off and bus shelters are destroyed, making the atmosphere grim.
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Police deployment in the center of Groningen
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The police then decides to ‘clean up’ the Grote Markt and calls on everyone to leave the center.
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Destruction of retail properties
That did not happen before the rioters first took out their frustration on a few buildings on the Grote Markt. For example, the storefront of Greving & Greving opticians was destroyed and part of the furniture was destroyed.
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A video circulating online clearly shows that several people enter the store. It is unknown if any items were stolen.
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Also vandalism in Herestraat and Carolieweg
A little further down the Herestraat, the glass shopfront of Aktiesport was destroyed with a bicycle rack. Elsewhere in the street, an attempt was also made to blow up a storefront with fireworks. The glass front of a smartphone shop on Carolieweg was destroyed.
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It is not known if any other arrests have been made.
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Hundreds of protesters in the afternoon
Earlier in the day, protests were already held in the city center about the dissatisfaction with the cabinet’s corona measures. That protest attracted hundreds of protesters and was peaceful. When that protest came to an end in the afternoon, online channels were called for to riot in Groningen in the evening.
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After the riots in the center of Groningen, bus operator Qbuzz announced that it would no longer allow buses to run through the Grote Markt for the rest of the day.
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