A far-right protest in The Netherlands erupted into violence as protestors clashed with police after they threw bottles at officers and torched a police car.
In the chaos that descended, police used tear gas and a water cannon to disperse some of the protestors as the demonstration threatened to become a riot.
The anti-migration protestors set fire to a police car and vandalized a political party’s office in The Hague, just weeks before a general election is due to take place in the country.
It is not yet known if there has been any injuries or arrests.
Dutch media showed rioters also attacking an office of the centrist political party, D66.
‘Scum. You keep your hands off political parties,’ the party’s leader Rob Jetten said in a message on X. ‘If you think you can intimidate us, tough luck. We will never let extremist rioters take our beautiful country away.’
A smaller group of rioters headed for the Dutch parliament complex, which is currently fenced off as it undergoes a years-long renovation.
The violence erupted at a demonstration attended by hundreds of people, many of them wearing black and waving flags, that called for tougher asylum policies.
Anti-riot police officers move in to clear the city center of far-right protesters
A police car burns after being torched by the far right protestors in The Hague
far-right protester waves a Dutch flag in front of police vehicles in the city centre
A far-right protester burns cardboard outside the D66 (centrist liberal) party office, where protesters had earlier smashed windows
The demonstration was organised by a woman known as Els Rechts, a prominent right-wing activist in The Netherlands.
She took to social media to condemn the violence which erupted following the demonstration.
She wrote: ‘How terrible I find this. I condemn every form of violence. What happened here is incomprehensible. Police officers were cornered, and things were destroyed and set on fire.
‘I assumed that people came to demonstrate peacefully, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, it turned out very differently. I regret that it happened this way. If I had known this in advance, I would never have organized it.
‘Due to the people who behaved so badly, the purpose of the demonstration has completely missed its mark. To the people who did behave well: thank you. Thank you for your attendance.’
Speakers at the demonstration included a member of the right-wing populist party BVNL, who had previously said the country had become a ‘mulitcultural nightmare’.
The unrest comes weeks before the Dutch hold their general election on October 29.
The election was called after anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders pulled his party out of the ruling coalition in a dispute over moves to rein in migration.
In a statement, Wilders condemned the rioters for blocking a highway and attacking police, calling them ‘idiots’ and ‘scum.’
