Several people taken to hospital after scuffles in German town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen as demonstrators, some throwing bottles, face off with riot police

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Protesters have clashed with police in the German resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen as G7 leaders prepared for wide-ranging talks on subjects from Fifa corruption to controversial free trade agreements.

Police responded with pepper spray when a group of marchers tried to break through their cordon. Scuffles broke out as the demonstrators, some throwing bottles, faced off with riot police in a narrow lane of Alpine houses on the edge of the town.



Occasional clashes followed as the demonstrators snaked their way back through the town. One paramedic said several protesters had been taken to hospital and he was aware of around 30 people with minor injuries.

A police spokeswoman could not give any official figures on casualties nor say whether there had been any arrests.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anti-G7 protesters demonstrate against the summit as leaders prepare to gather in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

The crowd was estimated by police at 3,500-4,000 while organisers put it at 7,500. Police vastly outnumbered the marchers in the picturesque former Winter Olympics venue at the foot of Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze.



At the two-day summit, David Cameron will call on his fellow members, Germany, France, the US, Italy, Canada and Japan, to tackle international corruption. In a speech on Sunday, in the wake of the crisis that has engulfed world football’s governing body, the prime minister is set to call corruption a “cancer” and the “arch-enemy of democracy”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An injured protester is carried away in Garmisch-Partenkirchen after scuffles between activists and riot police. Photograph: Felix K /Corbis

Cameron is also expected to urge fellow world leaders to come to an agreement on the controversial US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), to which many of those protesting have strong objections. Negotiations on the treaty have lasted more than 700 days.

Campaigners at Global Justice Now, one of the groups protesting in the resort, said they expect a Europe-wide petition against TTIP to hit 2m signatures in the coming week.

Guy Taylor of Global Justice Now said: “There is clearly no mandate for the G7 leaders to be pushing ahead with this disastrous trade deal.

“TTIP may bring some economic benefits for a tiny handful of the business elite but for the rest of us it would mean compromising vital public services, the stripping of regulations protecting labour rights and the environment, and a dramatic erosion of democratic process.”

The summit is also expected to discuss the possible renewal of sanctions against Russia (which was refused an invitation to what would have been a G8 summit over its involvement in Ukraine), funding for programmes to combat medical epidemics such as Ebola, and the risk of a Greek exit from the euro.

The Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, has been invited to the G7 meeting to discuss the US-led campaign against Islamic State in his country and in Syria.

Climate change is also high on protesters’ and politicians’ agendas, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, called for the industrial powers to throw their weight behind a longstanding pledge to seek $100bn (£65bn) to help poor countries tackle climate change, agreed in Copenhagen in 2009.

Merkel said in a video message on Saturday that it was important to have a “confirmation of this fund” from the G7.

Protesters set up a makeshift tented camp early on Saturday, and many more people are expected to arrive on buses from across Germany in time for the summit’s start on Sunday.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A policeman kicks away a smoke bomb during scuffles during a march by anti-G7 protesters through Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

A police spokesman, Hans-Peter Kammerer, said 22,000 officers were on standby over fears that more extreme factions from Germany, Austria, Italy and Britain could join the demonstrations.

German police said they would carry out spot checks at the country’s borders, which, because Germany is a member of the Schengen agreement, are normally openly accessible.

Police had planned to keep all demonstrators away from the venue, which is in a tiny village five miles from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but a court ruled that 50 protesters could be allowed inside the security zone, so G7 leaders would be able to hear them outside.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters and police officers clash in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Photograph: Felix K /Corbis

Simon Ernst, one of the organisers of the Stop Elmau demonstration, called the G7 leaders “the henchmen of bankers and corporations” and said that allowing just 50 demonstrators near the venue was far too few.



“We think it shows an arrogant attitude toward freedom of assembly,” he said.

The group takes its name from the luxury hotel where the summit will take place, nestled 1,000 metres above sea level in the snow-capped Bavarian mountains, from Sunday until Monday.

Stop Elmau said it is also demonstrating against free trade agreements like TTIP, as well as expressing opposition to Nato, and showing solidarity with migrants and refugees.

It will also draw attention to the “surveillance society and the dismantling of democratic liberties”.

At the demonstration on Saturday afternoon, participants ranged from anarchists with their faces covered to peace protesters wrapped in rainbow flags, as well as many families with children.

One of the most striking groups was six clowns who blocked a main road in the town and forced a police van to seek an alternative route.

Monika Lambert, from the Bavarian city of Erlangen, said she had come “to exercise my democratic rights to say that everything the G7 decides is in the interest of the banks and capitalists”.

“I asked my parents what they did during the Nazi period and they did nothing,” she said. “I don’t want to tell my children and grandchildren the same thing.”