Rioters looted shops in central Frankfurt late on Saturday, and clashes broke out with police there and in other German cities, according to the BBC. The violence followed largely peaceful mass protests over the cost of living.
Police said they used water cannon in Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg and Frankfurt to disperse protesters who targeted emergency workers with fireworks, stones and bottles. A large section of Frankfurt's main shopping street was closed off, the AFP news agency reported. A police spokesperson said many arrests were made in the city.
Frankfurt police said on X that "violent riots" were occurring in the city centre, that several shop windows had been smashed, and that molotov cocktails were thrown at emergency services. In later updates, officials said the windows of a gun shop were smashed and that two weapons were seized after a suspect was arrested.
Roman Poseck, interior minister of Hesse state, said "around 100 clearly identified left-wing extremists" had infiltrated the protest in Frankfurt. He called the way the protests ended "shameful."
The demonstrations were organised by the campaign group Gen Z regelt, meaning "Gen Z takes charge." Its spokesperson, Lina Friedrich, said the protests were "to fight for peace and freedom, rather than for war and coercion." She said: "What matters most to us is better support for the health and education systems. We are against compulsory military service and we are in favour of a fairer distribution of the burden."
Authorities in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin reported as many as 18,000 protesters, about half the number the organisers had estimated on their website. German media reported tens of thousands protested across German cities.
Similar youth-led protests took place in France on Saturday, where more than 320,000 people demonstrated, according to the report.