Over 300 arrested at Amsterdam lockdown protest on Sunday

A total of 334 people were detained by police in Amsterdam after a demonstration against the coronavirus lockdown was broken up by police on Sunday. Authorities used water cannons against the demonstrators on Museumplein after they refused police and municipal orders to disperse.

Officers broke up the protest because the group of a thousand people were not maintaining a distance of 1.5 meters from each other. They also were not granted permission to hold the demonstration.

Some 305 people were issued an area ban by authorities with a duration of nine weeks, meaning they are forbidden from visiting Museumplein or the surrounding streets. All those taken into custody were released later in the day.

It was the twelfth time in just over two months that police used force to break up an anti-lockdown protest on Museumplein. Last week, police announced that the tactical deployment around the square has cost a total of over 5.5 million euros leading up to Sunday's demonstration.