The Hague [Natherlands], February 18 : The Hague police officers on Saturday used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd after a brawl broke out between two groups of Eritreans at the Opera conference hall on Fruitweg, NL Times reported.
NL Times is a Netherlands-based media outlet.
According to the report, a police car was also set on fire near the scene on Saturday evening. It is was not immediately known whether there were any injuries.
The cause of the confrontation has not yet been identified. As riots erupted, rioters pelted the police with large rocks, bicycles and traffic signs.
According to the local news sources, bicycles, branches and fireworks were also thrown and windows of the conference centre were smashed.
Police personnel were also trying the building as rioters were trying to break inside, NL Times reported.
The fire brigade was dispatched to the scene but left the area. Two police vehicles were set on fire after the rioting broke out. Police officers and a riot squad drove people away using police vans, it reported citing an ANP reporter at the scene.
The situation was scaled up to a Grip 2 regional emergency, a protocol where all first responders on the scene coordinate under a single commander, and a regional response team set up in an office further away.
The mayor of The Hague, Jan van Zanen, gave police the authority to use tear gas, a police spokesperson confirmed after initial reporting. Van Zanen also issued an emergency order for the area around Fruitweg, a spokesperson for the municipality of The Hague said.
The spokesperson said that the emergency order applies to a radius of 500 meters around the conference center. With the order, police can stop and screen anyone in the area, and then decide whether or not to send them away. Anyone who does not leave can be arrested, NL Times reported.
Transport company HTM said that tram 11 and bus 26 were being detoured by order of the police.
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