Protesters in boats at G8 summit, crowds at fence (Roundup)

Jun 7, 2007, 14:51 GMT

Heiligendamm, Germany - Greenpeace protesters in rigid inflatable boats barged into a marine exclusion zone near the Group of Eight (G8) summit at Heiligendamm on Thursday and dodged police boats for 10 minutes before being stopped.

German boat police in a larger dinghy overshot the rail of one of the interlopers, bringing it to a stop. Its occupants were unhurt.

A high-speed combat boat that had been built for but never used by Swedish Navy cut off another boat. German police borrowed the vessel unarmed for use at the summit on the Baltic Sea coast.

Police, who the previous day had confiscated motor parts for four dinghies on the Greenpeace mother ship Arctic Sunrise, said they seized eight inflatable dinghies Thursday and detained 21 Greenpeace activists.

They said three demonstrators and one police officer suffered minor injuries in the chase inside the no-go area, which extends 14 kilometres offshore from the beach into the Baltic Sea.

Greenpeace said the mission, conducted by experienced boat crews, began with 11 inflatables with the aim of delivering a petition for action against climate change.

Media TV pictures showed only two of the boats flying protest flags got anywhere near the beach, watched by the astonished media corps in the summit media centre overlooking the Baltic.

On land, thousands of protesters streamed through woods and fields to demonstrate for a second day running at a temporary fence, two kilometres from the G8 summit venue.

German authorities have legally prohibited protests in the area, but police commanders have been pragmatic, insisting only that protesters do not touch the fence or block key roads.

Police mounted on horses pushed back about 30 demonstrators who rushed a main gate to the summit.

All day long there were low-level clashes, with police tanker trucks hosing down the protesters, riot police manhandling demonstrators or walls of police with plastic clubs and shields holding off the crowds when they crossed red lines.

Some demonstrators threw stones and grew angry, but there were no explosions of extreme violence.

The protesters were constantly on the move, creating diversions, probing police lines, retiring to rest or hauling in food. Police used troop helicopters to switch forces from site to site.

'We're only clearing roads if they are needed by us, other transport operations or emergency services,' said a police spokesman.

At one gate to the summit compound, about 1,000 protesters spent the night in sleeping bags. At another access way to the east, 500 slept on the ground.