18 June, GERMANY (AP) | Policemen who had entered the building by sawing open the door leave after a smoke bomb was set up inside 94 Rigaer Strasse street in Berlin’s Friedrichshain district on June 17, 2021, where a fire protection inspection was planned by the fire department and opposed by some residents squatting in the building, while the banner reads ‘Our passion for freedom is stronger than any authority’. – Sixty police officers were injured in riots that erupted on June 16 at one of Berlin’s last squats ahead of disputed fire protection checks on the building.
Its facade covered in murals and anti-capitalist graffiti, the occupied building at 94 Rigaer Strasse is among the squats that mushroomed across the city after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Numerous attempts have been made in recent years to clear the squat, but each time they have ended in violence.
Ahead of the planned fire protection inspection on June 17, police had declared the zone a restricted area and banned all demonstrations in the environs. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP)
