The German police significantly exaggerated the number of officers reportedly injured in clashes with protesters during the G20 summit in Hamburg, BuzzFeed News has found.

The police's figure of 476 officers injured was widely reported by international media outlets. But it doesn't square up with the information all 16 German state police authorities provided in response to BuzzFeed News inquiries.

According to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, it's true that 476 police officers were injured or fell ill "during the extended response phase," from June 22 to July 10. But only 231 officers were injured during the "peak response phase" from July 6 to July 9, the Ministry wrote BuzzFeed News in an email. The G20 summit took place on July 7 and 8.



Thus, according to the Ministry, more than half of the 476 injured officers had reported they were sick or injured in the two weeks before the protests began.

The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior confirmed that the widely reported number 476 came from the Hamburg police. "We also don't know where they got these figures," a spokeswoman told BuzzFeed News.

The Hamburg police said that no information was available on the number of officers injured before the riots and that an accurate survey was no longer possible due to the turbulent situation. They would only confirm that 74 officers had been reported injured before the start of the clashes on Thursday, July 6.