Thousands of Germans staged protests in Germany against restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and against vaccination requirements, DPA reported.

In the southwestern city of Freiburg, about 4,500 people took part in a demonstration against proposals for mandatory vaccination and other measures to curb the pandemic, police said. Organizers expected about 7,000 people to take part in the protest.

According to a police spokesman, there were no significant incidents, although counter-protesters tried to block the procession by bicycles.

In the eastern city of Leipzig, the police ceased demonstration of several hundred people. According to a police spokesman, several dozen people broke through the cordon and entered the psychiatric ward of the University Hospital in Leipzig, where police ordered several of them to establish their identities.

A police spokesman said an investigation was underway into violating the assembly law, resisting law enforcement and violating anti-epidemic rules in Saxony.

Again in the same province, about 1,250 people gathered for an unauthorized protest in the town of Zwonitz, police said. Ten people were asked of their identities because they covered their faces - a violation of public gatherings in Germany.

In Brandenburg An Der Havel, a city located west of Berlin, the police scattered an unregistered demonstration against anti-epidemic rules. Participants can be accused of unauthorized gathering and non-compliance with the rules of wearing a mask.

Several hundred people protested in the town of Schwerin in the northeastern province of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The number of demonstrators reached 900.

Other pandemic-related events have also been reported. In the town of Cuxhaven on the North Sea coast, about 1,250 people have formed a human chain while maintaining a social distance that stretches for 2.5 km, said a representative of local authorities. The event aimed to show solidarity.

“The majority of the public supports the temporary measures against the spread of the coronavirus out of a sense of responsibility to our brothers and sisters,” the organizers said in a statement.

/ClubZ /BTA

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