G20 demos draw Swiss involvement

Five Swiss were among the 186 people detained during the violent protests and riots at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, and four other Swiss were taken into custody for security reasons but later released.

One of the five Swiss detained faces potentially serious charges involving resisting police and attempting to cause dangerous harm to another which could bring a prison sentence of up to three years, according to Hamburg authorities.

Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick said the train bringing Swiss protesters back home to Switzerland was stopped and searched at the border, and that the head of police in Bern suggested there might have been fewer police injured in Hamburg if they used rubber bullets like police do in the Swiss capital.

It also said some left-wing organisations in Zurich and a left-wing centre in Bern were particularly active in mobilizing people to go to Hamburg for the protests. The police would not disclose many Swiss might have been detained or later released in Hamburg or during the border checks.

German authorities previously said hundreds had boarded a special train from Basel to Hamburg, with many of them pulled aside to undergo rigorous inspection checks and dozens refused entry.

The Swiss News Agency reported that the violent riots were continuing on Sunday even after the end of the G20 summit from Friday to Saturday. Rioters threw bottles, stones and other objects. Police reported several arrests and injuries to officers among their own ranks.

Police reported on Saturday that more than 200 police officers were wounded since Thursday and 143 people arrested, but there were no exact figures available on the number of injured demonstrators.