Last updated at 22:57 07 June 2007

This is the dramatic moment when German police rammed a dinghy carrying demonstrators at the summit.

Police motor launches clashed with two Greenpeace inflatables following a high-speed chase across the Baltic Sea.

Meanwhile, on land, thousands of demonstrators continued to try to disrupt the day's meetings by blocking roads, despite bursts of water cannon and tear gas and numerous arrests.

The ten-minute pursuit on the high seas was beamed by satellite TV around the globe.

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Greenpeace protesters were aiming to score a publicity coup by breaching the massive security and reaching the luxury summit hotel in the resort of Heiligendamm - and they nearly succeeded.

The powerful inflatables were well within the five-mile aquatic no-go zone before a red alert went out to the armada of police and naval boats patrolling offshore to stop them.

A police motor launch rammed the inflatables, pitching the crew of one into the sea. Three people were injured and taken to hospital after being picked up by the officers who sank them.

The sophistication of the planning and coordination that has gone into the demonstrations shows the determination to overcome the incredible security measures now needed to guard the world leaders.

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By the end of this summit later today, the cost of keeping George Bush, Tony Blair and other G8 representatives safe will have reached more than £120million.

It is this extreme contradiction of costs versus achievements which is one of the complaints of the disparate army of protesters who come together at every G8 summit to try to disrupt it or simply to fight with the authorities.

The thousands who have descended on Germany this week are from groups as diverse as Greenpeace and La Lotta Continua (The Struggle Continues) from Italy, who want to smash the state and set up "people's collectives".

Many Britons are among the estimated 30 protest groups.

"A new world order can only be created through violent struggle," said Julia, from Nottingham.

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She is part of G8 Feminist Action and has no qualms over the violence used by protesters. "We have seen how ineffective peaceful mass protests have been," she said.

"Millions took to the streets to try to stop the invasion of Iraq and yet the corrupt world powers still wage their war."

Also there are members of the Rebel Clown Army, born out of Germany's anti-nuclear movement.

Their members dress as circus clowns and claim to bring peaceful humour to the protests - although police say they include militants who threw acid into the faces of officers during riots at Rostock earlier this week.

The so-called "Black Bloc" are also out in force. They are made up of black-clad, hooded, sunglasses-wearing street anarchists whose members dug up paving stones to hurl at police lines last Saturday and who were caught with petrol bombs on Wednesday.

Critics of G8 argue that if the summits were instead reduced to video-conferencing among the members taking part the protesters would be neutered overnight.