BERLIN: At least one pol­ice officer was injured in Berlin on Saturday when around 500 activists shouting “Nazis out” clashed with an equal number of far-right activists marking the 31st anniversary of the prison suicide of Nazi convict Rudolf Hess.

Many of the far-right acti­vists hoisted the red, white and black flag of Hitler’s Third Reich. One group carried a sign that proclaimed, “I re­­gret nothing: National Soc­ialists Berlin.” “There were reports of injuries when some stones and bottles were thrown by counter de­­mon­s­trators at the far-right demonstrators,” Ber­lin police spo­kesman said.

“At least one police officer was injured. But the event is still going on and we’re still compiling the numbers.” About 2,300 police officers were on duty to prevent violence at the Berlin event and a separate march by less than 50 people in the Berlin suburb of Spandau, where Hess, a former deputy of Germany’s war­­­­time dictator Adolf Hitler, served a life sentence handed down at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018