Germans on alert after riots

German riot police are on full alert after clashes with hundreds of demonstrators in Berlin on the eve of May Day.

Rioters lobbed bottles and stones and fired flares at police who intervened to stop the looting, which erupted after dark at the end of an open-air rock concert that drew an estimated 5,000 people to the streets of Kreuzberg district.

A police helicopter whirred overhead as several hundred officers rushed in and dispersed the crowd, geared up for anti-globalisation protests in the capital on the May Day holiday today.

Several police officers were injured, police spokesman Christian Matzdorf said. He said he knew of no injuries to demonstrators. By midnight, the crowds were melting away and police said the situation was under control.

Berlin’s Kreuzberg district has been the focus of riots on May Day and the night before that have become a fixture in the capital over the past 15 years.

About 10,000 people gathered at night around bonfires in a park several miles to the north to mark St Walpurgis Night, recalling a medieval rite of spring believed to scare off witches. Police said those celebrations passed peacefully.

Still, officers pushed back crowds in a nearby thoroughfare so that a water cannon could douse a rubbish fire after youths refused to let firefighters through, police spokesman Heino Berg said.