Protesters clashed with police, throwing stones and flagpoles Saturday during a demonstration attended by tens of thousands against the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Germany, a police official said. "There are massive assaults on police officers at the city's harbor right now," police spokeswoman Cordula Feichtinger said. "The situation is currently very chaotic and we have to get it under control before I can tell you how many people have been arrested." Feichtinger said one police officer was injured slightly but remained on duty. The officially permitted march in the northern town of Rostock comes four days before world leaders gather at nearby Heiligendamm for the G-8 summit. The march began without violence, and most of the demonstrators remained peaceful. But some taunted members of the 13,000-strong police detachment from around Germany, and several hundred wore the bandanas across their faces with sweat shirt hoods pulled down low to obscure their identities.
The protesters from around Europe and the rest of the world gathered at two locations early in the day for rallies, then marched in two groups along 4-kilometer (3 mile) routes to converge on the harbor for the main demonstration - the biggest so far against the June 6-8 summit in the northern resort town of Heiligendamm. Police put the size of the demonstration at 20,000, organizers said it was 50,000. Police with body armor and riot helmets lined the path, and helicopters swirled overhead.
The protest was organized by several dozen groups under the motto "another world is possible."
"The world shaped by the dominance of the G-8 is a world of war, hunger, social divisions, environmental destruction and barriers against migrants and refugees," organizers said in leaflets handed out on the streets. "We want to protest against this and show the alternatives."