Belgian police fire tear gas at anti-lockdown protesters

BRUSSELS: Belgian police fired water cannon and tear gas as they moved in on Saturday to clear a crowd of several hundred gathered in a park to protest anti-virus lockdown rules. The defiant, mainly young crowd had assembled for the so-called "Boum 2" protest, organised online, as a follow up to an action that was broken up last month.

Prime Minister Alexander de Croo had urged the crowds to stay away, and hundreds of officers were deployed before the order to clear the park was given

AFP reporters in the Bois de la Cambre, a large park in the city, saw fireworks set off and some missiles thrown before police moved in.

"We see that health measures are not being respected," police announced on Twitter, after drones equipped with loudspeakers called for masks and distancing.

"Brussels police will proceed to clear the area," the tweet read. AFP reporters in the park did not hear an order to disperse.

As the clearance operation began there was little immediate sign of violent resistance from protesters but a dustbin was set on fire as the crowd retreated.

Meanwhile, surge testing is to be deployed across parts of east London after several cases of the South African and Brazilian variants were detected.The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said NHS Test and Trace was working with Tower Hamlets council to provide additional testing and genomic sequencing in targeted areas within the E1 postcode from Sunday.

It follows the identification of “several” confirmed cases of the variant B.1.351, first seen in South Africa, and the P1 variant, first identified in Brazil.