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Demonstrators burn tires during a riot in the Rosengard neighborhood of Malmo, Sweden following a public Koran burning, August 28, 2020. © Reuters / TT News Agency |
A wave of chaotic unrest broke out in Malmo, Sweden after anti-Islam activists filmed a public Koran burning, sparking protests that soon descended into riots, with unruly demonstrators setting fires and clashing with police.
Some 300 people gathered along a main thoroughfare in Malmo on Friday around 7:30pm local time to protest after members of a far-right political party staged a Koran burning earlier in the day, according to local press reports. As the crowd grew, fires were ignited in the street and several cars were torched, prompting a heavy police response that struggled to bring the situation under control.
“We have ongoing and violent riots right now that we have no control over,” police spokesman Rickard Lundqvist told a local news outlet amid the disorder.
#Breaking: Massive police and fire-fighter present in #Malmo in #Sweden, after "Stram kurs" a Danish far-right individual person burned the Quran in public on the street, and now riots and vandalism is taking place in muslim majority neighbourhoods. pic.twitter.com/aYlyNynLFi— Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@Sotiridi1) August 28, 2020
— Dissenting Idea Dispenser 🏳️🌈🇸🇪 (@zyQAs0Xfl40taD) August 28, 2020
@TheInsiderPaper #BREAKING— 🌎 Sarwar 🌐 (@ferozwala) August 28, 2020
Violent Riots break out at Malmö, Sweden after a group named 'Stram kurs' burned the Holy #Quran.#Rosengård #Malmo
توبہ استغفار pic.twitter.com/HNRAEoCDMD
— Dissenting Idea Dispenser 🏳️🌈🇸🇪 (@zyQAs0Xfl40taD) August 28, 2020
— Dissenting Idea Dispenser 🏳️🌈🇸🇪 (@zyQAs0Xfl40taD) August 28, 2020
BREAKING: HUGE riots are taking place in Malmö, Sweden after the Danish far-right group "Stram kurs" burned the Quran (@Faytuks) pic.twitter.com/HuhIKwXz8P— SV News 🚨 (@SVNewsAlerts) August 28, 2020
Elsewhere in Malmo, three Stram Kurs members were reportedly arrested for incitement against an ethnic group after torching another Koran in public.
Paludan was barred from entry into Sweden earlier on Friday, turned away at a border checkpoint near Malmo and slapped with a two-year ban from the country over concerns that he could “disturb public order,” a police spokesperson told Danish broadcaster DR. The right-wing activist had previously requested a permit to hold a demonstration in Malmo, where he was set to attend a Koran burning with street artist Dan Park, which was promptly rejected by Swedish authorities. A court argued that while “the freedom of assembly and demonstration are constitutionally protected rights,” the government may prohibit a gathering “for reasons of order and safety.”