By IRNA
Berlin : The head of Berlin’s police Dieter Glietsch was attacked by militant leftists during a May Day demonstration in Berlin Thursday evening, press reports said.
Glietsch was touring the site of the May 1 demo in Berlin’s working-class neighborhood of Kreuzberg when he was pelted with bottles.
The police chief was whisked away by security forces to a police van which was assaulted by protesters with bottles, chairs, bicycles and stones.
Police did manage to fend off the attackers.
Riots have reportedly spread to other parts of the German capital as police have been reportedly targeted for attacks by militant leftists.
There have been numerous arrests, according to news reports.
Berlin has a long and sad tradition of bloody street riots since the mid-1980s.
Germany had been the scene of ugly riots in several cities throughout the day, especially in Hamburg and Nuremberg but also Cottbus and Leipzig.
Dozens of people have been arrested and wounded as a result of street clashes with hundreds of baton-wielding riot police over the past 24 hours.
The riots were mainly provoked by a series of neo-Nazi marches across Germany.