Strasbourg buildings burn as anti-NATO protesters riot (3rd Lead)

Apr 4, 2009, 14:02 GMT

Strasbourg, France - Rioters set fire to a hotel and other buildings in the French city of Strasbourg Saturday as clashes between police and militants opposed to the NATO summit in the city escalated.

The hotel was gutted by the flames, apparently set off by petrol bombs thrown through the windows. The owner of the hotel chain said the building had formerly offered 78 rooms. There were no reports of casualties in the fire.

In all, three columns of smoke rose over the city district. A tourist information office and a disused customs post were also gutted. All the fires were near a traffic bridge across the Rhine River to the small German town of Kehl.

German police sent truck-mounted water cannon across the bridge to help douse the flames, because the riot scene was too dangerous for regular firefighters to work in.

An estimated 6,000 demonstrators at the German end of the bridge were prevented by a police cordon from crossing to the scene of the mayhem at the French end.

Angry protesters sat down, complaining their rights had been infringed. German police requested protest leaders to alter the route, and a new protest timetable was quickly negotiated.

European pacifists, anarchists, communists and radical feminists had formed a protest alliance before the summit.

Many were avowedly non-violent, but the movement also embraced a hardline group that has repeatedly clashed with police at summits and other government events in various nations down the years.

NATO leaders were meeting in Strasbourg on Saturday at a summit celebrating the 60th anniversary of the alliance's founding.

Sporadic clashes Thursday evening and Friday evening had given a foretaste of Saturday's attack by black-clad militants, many of them carrying stones, empty bottles and petrol bombs to throw.

During a morning of running battles between police and militants on the French side, police had closed several roads, making it difficult for the main body of demonstrators to gather at the assigned protest site in Strasbourg.

Some 10,000 French police officers and gendarmes, reinforced by some German police units, were deployed in and around Strasbourg Saturday. As the protest hour approached, residents stayed indoors and streets of downtown districts were deserted.

Police said 28 people were arrested early Saturday as nearly 2,000 demonstrators managed to infiltrate the city, blocking tramway and bus routes. But they failed in their primary goal of blocking the motorcades carrying NATO leaders through Strasbourg.

The demonstrators' motto was a call to spend 'millions on peace instead of billions on war.'