{"id":248706,"date":"2022-01-24T09:14:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T09:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=248706"},"modified":"2022-01-25T08:25:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T08:25:14","slug":"riot-police-blast-protestors-with-water-cannon-and-tear-gas-as-thousands-march-through-brussels-demanding-end-to-tough-covid-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=248706","title":{"rendered":"Riot police blast protestors with water cannon and tear gas as thousands march through Brussels demanding end to tough COVID rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Belgian police resorted to using powerful water cannons and tear gas to control mass protests in Brussels<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Up to 50,000 people today marched through the EU capital to oppose coronavirus restrictions in Belgium<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Brussels police said 70 people were detained and three officers and 12 demonstrators required treatment\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Comes after country saw record 60,000 cases a day in what was described as an Omicron &#8216;tsunami&#8217;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Many EU countries, including Belgium, have seen major protests against Covid restrictions in recent months\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced on Friday that a &#8216;Covid\u00a0barometer&#8217; will be introduced<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Barometer will be colour-coded and allow authorities to link coronavirus measures and restrictions to hospitalisation numbers and ICU capacity\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Olivia Devereux-Evans and David Averre \u2013 Daily Mail Jan 23, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Belgian police resorted to firing powerful water cannons and using tear gas to control mass demonstrations in Brussels against the EU nation&#8217;s Covid-19 restrictions earlier today.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s protest saw up to 50,000 people demonstrating in the capital of the European Union, including many who had travelled from France, Germany and other European countries to take part and voice their anger.<\/p>\n<p>Protesters yelled &#8216;Liberty!&#8217; as they marched through the streets of Brussels and clashed violently with police, while videos emerged of\u00a0black-clad protesters attacking a building used by the European Union&#8217;s diplomatic service, hurling projectiles at its entrance and smashing windows.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_248709\" style=\"width: 380px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Protestors-march-through-Brussels-against-the-Covid-lockdown-rules.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248709\" class=\"wp-image-248709\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Protestors-march-through-Brussels-against-the-Covid-lockdown-rules.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"370\" height=\"246\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-248709\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protestors march through Brussels to demonstrate against the Covid lockdown rules. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p>White-helmeted police riot officers later sought to disperse protesters, who ignored instructions broadcast over loudspeakers that the demonstration was finished and that they should leave.<\/p>\n<p>Police water cannons fired powerful jets at protesters, while thick clouds of smoke and snaking trails of tear gas filled the air in the Belgian capital.<\/p>\n<p>The demonstration called for an end to the country&#8217;s tough Covid rules as the nation battles an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/omicron-variant\/index.html\"><strong>Omicron<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0&#8216;tsunami&#8217; which has seen the number of daily infections rise to over 60,000.<\/p>\n<p>Brussels police said 70 people were detained and three officers and 12 demonstrators required hospital treatment.<\/p>\n<p>The sprawling crowd paraded through the Belgian capital in a protest much larger than previous demonstrations &#8211; though there have been multiple protests\u00a0in Brussels in recent months which also saw participants clash with the police.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent protest on January 9 saw groups of demonstrators walk through the Belgian capital holding banners and chanting: &#8216;Freedom, freedom!&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s protest was no different, with demonstrators clutching signs slamming Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and the Covid Safe Pass.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10432529\/Thousands-march-Brussels-demanding-end-tough-Covid-rules.html\">Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; padding-top: 25px; height: 0;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/546887-brussels-eu-covid-clashes-video\/video\/61ed92f785f5401700492661\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As many as 50,000 marched through the European Union capital in protest against the Covid restrictions, with a breakaway group attacked offices used by the EU&#8217;s diplomatic service <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":248708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=248706"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248741,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248706\/revisions\/248741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/248708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=248706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=248706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=248706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}