WRAP Protesters clash with police in Strasbourg ADDS clashes, march
(4 Apr 2009) ++EARLY MORNING SHOTS++ 1. Demonstrators marching in street 2. Demonstrators holding banner reading: (English) "Block NATO" 3. Police firing tear gas into crowd, zoom in 4. Mid of police officer near crowd 5. Demonstrators moving away as more tear gas is fired ++DAY SHOTS++ 6. Zoom in as tear gas is fired amongst protesters 7. Police officers forming a line 8. Protesters climbing onto wall, pan to smoke from tear gas in street 9. SOUNDBITE (English) name unavailable, protester, vox pop: "When we were in the middle we were neither under arrest nor asked to disperse, on the contrary, we were stuck and they started to fire tear gas. That is really serious, that is a provocation. We are strictly non-violent, there's no weapons, there's no violent activists, but they try to create violence. So far they have failed." 10. Various of police jostling with protesters playing percussion instruments,dressed as clowns 11. Police officer hitting protester with baton ++DAY SHOTS++ 12. Wide of protesters standing in circle playing instruments, occupying intersection 13. Pan left of protesters playing instruments 14. Various of riot police watching protesters 15. Top shots of police scuffling with protesters, tear gas being fired 16. Pan from police to protesters walking away 17. Various of protesters marching from camp towards harbour area STORYLINE: Police held back protesters with tear gas and detained two dozen people in a pre-dawn clash before a summit of leaders of 28 NATO nations on Saturday on the French-German border. Other demonstrators made their way into the centre of Strasbourg in a failed attempt to disrupt NATO delegates from reaching the meeting. Meanwhile, the French president's office said a delegation of spouses had a visit to a cancer hospital cancelled for security reasons. Some one-thousand protesters were staked out near the hospital they were to visit. Some 1,800 protesters left their camp in the south of the French city of Strasbourg at about 4 a.m. (0200 GMT) and headed north through deserted streets to the summit site. The site is ringed with heavy security, and riot police kept them back with tear gas and barricades. The police headquarters for the Bas-Rhin region said 25 people were detained in the incident. Elsewhere, a separate group of 200 French and German protesters, including dozens dressed as clowns and a team of dancing percussionists, occupied a central intersection in downtown Strasbourg after police launched flash bombs and tear gas at them. One protester, and spokesman for Block NATO, the network of anti-NATO groups staging the protest, said the demonstrators had hoped to make it hard to transport NATO delegates to the site of the summit. The leaders of NATO countries are meeting to discuss the war in Afghanistan and NATO's future in a summit jointly hosted by Strasbourg and the German towns of Kehl and Baden-Baden. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
