An initially peaceful protest against the upcoming G7 summit in France escalated in the Swiss city of Geneva on Sunday, with masked demonstrators smashing numerous windows and police deploying tear gas repeatedly during the late afternoon and evening.
A bloc of several hundred black-clad individuals disrupted what had long been a peaceful atmosphere.
The masked protesters tore cobblestones from the ground and plywood boards from shopfronts, set a car and rubbish bins on fire, and smashed numerous windows - of shops, bus stops, advertising hoardings and the entrances of UN organizations.
Police said at least 20,000 people took part; organizers put the figure higher at several tens of thousands. Around 7,000 security personnel were deployed.
Police kept a low profile for much of the day, but away from the approved march route they cordoned off the main bridge over the Rhône leading to the main shopping streets and, elsewhere, the United Nations headquarters in the Swiss border city just along the shores of Lake Geneva from the G7 summit venue.
Police said on Facebook that they had confiscated several objects that appeared to have been intended for use in confrontations with officers.
According to its manifesto, the No G7 coalition of 60 organizations demonstrated against US military bases in Europe and in favour of higher minimum wages, free contraception, unrestricted freedom of movement for workers from around the world and the removal of gender from all identity documents.
The coalition described the G7 as an "illegitimate and outdated institution, a private club that no longer reflects today's world," where "major powers make decisions in favour of the most privileged minority in the world and to the detriment of more than 90% of the population."
The summit of G7 leaders from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Japan and the US begins Monday in Évian on the French shore of Lake Geneva. Geneva lies around 50 kilometres away, but France was unwilling to allow protests there, according to the Geneva city government. Organizers therefore registered the demonstration in Geneva.
The vast majority of demonstrators remained peaceful. Music boomed from large speakers during the march and, apart from the apparently violence-prone black bloc, participants danced in bright sunshine and good spirits.
Geneva had braced for unrest, recalling the devastating damage and looting that accompanied a 2003 demonstration against what was then the G8, which still included Russia. Hundreds of shopkeepers and hoteliers had boarded up their windows and entrances with plywood.
The events of 2003 were a trauma for Geneva police, said the region's police chief, Monica Bonfanti. At the time, only a few dozen officers were on duty and were completely overwhelmed by the violence.
This time, reinforcements were brought in from across the country. Several thousand officers have been checking vehicles and the identity papers of passers-by throughout the city for two days.
The task of Swiss security forces extended beyond managing the demonstration. They also had to guarantee the safety of arriving G7 leaders. Geneva's airport is the closest to Évian, with most delegations expected to arrive there on Monday.
Geneva sits like an enclave within French territory. The Swiss have closed around 30 of the border crossings, leaving just seven open, and began carrying out identity checks in the city on Friday.
