Dutch condemn rioting over virus curfew, fear more violence

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch politicians on Monday condemned rioters who clashed with police in about 10 towns and cities across the Netherlands on the second night of a coronavirus curfew and authorities feared more unrest overnight.

Dutch media reported calls on social media for further violent protests even as the country struggles to contain new coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

Police in the southern town of Goes said they arrested four youths on suspicion of using social media to call for rioting.

“It is unacceptable,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. “This has nothing to do with protesting, this is criminal violence and that's how we'll treat it.”

Worst hit during the rioting Sunday was the southern city of Eindhoven, where police clashed with hundreds of rioters who torched a car, threw rocks and fireworks at officers, smashed windows and looted a supermarket at its railway station.

“My city is crying, and so am I,” Eindhoven Mayor John Jorritsma told reporters Sunday night in an emotional impromptu press conference. Hee called the rioters “the scum of the earth” and added “I am afraid that if we continue down this path, we’re on our way to civil war."

Amsterdam police arrested 190 people amid rioting at a banned demonstration Sunday.

The rioting coincided with the first weekend of a new national coronavirus curfew from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m., but mayors stressed that the violence was not the work of citizens concerned about their civil liberties.

“These demonstrations are being hijacked by people who only want one thing and that is to riot,” Hubert Bruls, mayor of the city of Nijmegen and leader of a group of local security organizations, told news talk show Op1.

Nijmegen was one of a number of towns and cities...