Switzerland was cleaning up today after running battles between riot police and anti-globalisation protestors left a trail of damage in two posh lakeside cities as world leaders met across the border in France.
Sporadic clashes between the demonstrators and Swiss riot police using tear gas and stun grenades continued in Geneva until the early hours of this morning, leaving luxury shops looted and store windows smashed.
German police officers, about 1,000 of whom were on loan to boost security during the Group of Eight (G8) summit in the French resort of Evian, were rushed in from airport duty to help their Swiss counterparts.
Tens of thousands marched on Sunday in largely peaceful twin anti-G8 rallies in Geneva and the nearby French town of Annemasse that met up on the border.
The anti-globalists accuse the leaders of the G8 leading industrial democracies, whose annual summit began Sunday in the heavily-fortified Evian, of exploiting the world's poor nations.
But the day of protest was marred by rioting in Geneva and Lausanne, which both lie on the shores of Lake Geneva, which forms the border between France and Switzerland. Clashes began on Thursday in Lausanne and continued sporadically both there and in Geneva over the weekend.
About 400 protestors were held for questioning in Lausanne yesterday after they set fire to barricades, wrecked a petrol station and sprayed graffiti on cars, while in Geneva, a 1,000-strong mob lobbed stones at police after the mass anti-G8 rally.
Most of those detained were later released without charge. About 10 people, including two police officers, were treated in hopsital for light injuries in Lausanne. In Geneva, three police officers and five protestors were also treated for minor injuries. Geneva police made 25 arrests last night.
A British protestor suffered multiple fractures near Lausanne when he fell 20 metres off a motorway bridge after police cut the rope he was hanging from.
While most of yesterday's violence was in Switzerland, protestors in France had early in the day clashed with riot police when they tried to block a road leading to Evian.
The demonstrations however failed to disrupt the G8 summit, where leaders such as host French President Jacques Chirac, US President George W. Bush and their Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met to discuss world affairs.
Security for the meeting, which ends tomorrow, was so tight that that the protestors were forced to focus their campaign around Geneva and Annemasse, setting up vast tent camps.
To counter the threat from both demonstrators, some 25,000 police and military personnel have been deployed by France and Switzerland, which put on its biggest security operation since World War II.
AFP