By IRNA,
Berlin : Berlin and Hamburg became the scene of riots Saturday evening as thousands of mostly militant radical leftists and anarchists led bloody street clashes with baton-wielding riot police, resulting in mass arrests and numerous injuries, media reports said.
A police spokesman in Berlin confirmed that one of their officers was critically wounded after being stabbed by an unidentified assailant.
Violence erupted in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district as night fell,
with black-clad masked rioters throwing stones, bottles and firecrackers at riot police.
Protesters tried to overturn and demolish several parked vehicles as robo-cop style police officers used water cannons to disperse the rioting crowd.
Meanwhile, Hamburg residents witnessed similar riots for a second night in a row as the violence left several police officers and protesters injured.
Police cracked down hard on rioters in Hamburg’s Schanzenviertel district, arresting scores of them.
Setting up burning barricades in the streets, rioters ransacked also several shops and smashed the windows of several banks.
May Day festivities have in the past been overshadowed by violence in Germany, especially in Berlin and Hamburg where bloody May 1 riots have became a sad ritual.