MORE than 100 police were reported to have been hurt last night when a protest against the forthcoming G8 summit in Germany erupted in violence.

Masked demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails, fireworks and flagpoles during clashes that followed a march in the port city of Rostock.

Police officers in helmets and full body armour retreated under a hail of rocks before using teargas and water cannon in the struggle to restore order. The number of demonstrators injured was unknown.

The violence intensified concern about the plans of anarchists and antiglobalisation groups to disrupt the three-day summit of world leaders in the Baltic seaside resort of Heiligen-damm, 16 miles from Rostock, which starts on Wednesday.

It’s Grrrrr8 (honest)

As the G8 summit begins in Germany, Hugo Rifkind explains everything you need to know – and lots of stuff you don’t

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Background

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• Official site of the G8 summit Heiligendamm

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• G8 activists turn peaceful demo into riot

Tens of thousands of protesters have converged on the area from across Europe, including hundreds from Britain, to demand stronger action on global warming, Aids and poverty.

A peaceful lunchtime demonstration by 50,000 marchers descended into mayhem when a group of about 500 set on police near Rostock’s harbour.

When they showered the police with missiles, officers scattered them only to come under a barrage of rocks from another hostile group behind.

As organisers pleaded for calm through loudspeakers, other demonstrators with bandannas across their faces and sweatshirt hoods pulled down taunted officers.

Then they charged police ranks, pelting them with bottles and cobblestones. A police spokesman said there had been “massive assaults”.

The attacks were condemned by demonstrators from church and cultural groups who said that the majority had not been looking for trouble.

Many protesters had turned up for the march wearing the masks of leaders including President George W Bush, Tony Blair and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

In London hundreds of people clad mainly in white lined the banks of the Thames to urge the G8 to honour promises made two years ago.

Midge Ure, the musician and antipoverty campaigner, said: “This rally is to tell Tony Blair to make the G8 live up to the promises they made on Aids, poverty and climate.”

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