Posted July 09, 2017 13:21:24

The G20 leaders have all left and the protest in central Hamburg is peaceful.

It's a mild summer evening, most people are drinking and holding signs in the middle of a closed street.

Riot police patrol the edge of the protest, which gradually grows as darkness falls.

Then suddenly the mood changes.

A handful of activists throw a flare and a few bottles at police.

Officers run at the group and then the skirmishes properly begin.

Beer bottles rain down on police from all directions. They respond with water cannons and flash grenades in an attempt to disperse the increasingly angry crowd.

Then thousands of officers move in, shields and batons at the ready, determined to clear the area.

The most violent are seized while the more timid activists flee.

Intersections are blocked off and within 30 minutes most streets are locked down.

Choppers shine their spotlights down from above — they know the troublemakers will resurface again.

This is a scene that has been played out again and again in Hamburg over the past few days.

Photo: Thousands of protesters have flocked to the streets of Hamburg, many taking their demonstrations to extreme levels. (Reuters: Pawel Kopczynski)

"The violence against police has reached a whole new level," Hamburg Police spokesman Timo Zill said.

"Police officers have been shot with steel pellets, paving stones were placed on rooftops and Molotov cocktails were prepared."

Bins, barricades, scaffolding and signs have been thrown into bonfires and several shops have been broken into.

Photo: Some protesters set fire to cars in the street. (AP: Christophe Gateau, dpa)

"I just don't know why people would do this," Cord Wohlke says outside his ransacked shop.

"It wasn't the people who live here. They've done about 400,000 euros in damage. This is just criminal, not a protest."

In Hamburg's Schanzenviertel, the district that's played host to the G20's most violent clashes, the locals want it to stop.

Some took to drawing peace signs on the streets.

"There are a lot of stupid people who just want to be violent, destroy things," one woman says.

"We just want to show that Hamburg is not like that. We want it to stop."

Residents were told the G20 would help promote the city.

Instead many feel the meeting and rolling protests have damaged Hamburg's image abroad.

Visiting demonstrators are disappointed too.

The vast majority came to Hamburg to send peaceful messages to world leaders about issues like climate change, poverty and free trade.

But they've all largely been lost in the violent chaos of the past few days.

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, police, activism-and-lobbying, germany