Woman sprayed by police water cannon suffers fractured skull.
Anti-lockdown demos in the Netherlands this week have generated many shocking images. But there is one that may yet become iconic.
During a protest against the imposition of a nationwide 9pm curfew in Eindhoven last Sunday, a police truck turned its water cannon on a young woman who was hurled against a concrete wall so hard that she appeared to bounce off it.
She slumped to the ground and was photographed with blood pouring down her face. The woman, later named as Denisa Stastna, sustained a fractured skull and a head wound that required more than 15 stitches.
According to police, she was targeted because she and her boyfriend ignored repeated instructions to leave an area of the city where anti-curfew protests had been raging for several hours.
A video of the incident quickly went viral, one of many shared online by a public stunned by the sudden eruption of violence in a country long renowned for being one of the most liberal, tolerant and civilised in the world.
This week thousands of its normally law-abiding citizens have engaged in an orgy of rioting and looting, attacking police with Molotov cocktails, fireworks and any projectiles that came to hand. More than 400 people have been arrested and 5,700 fines imposed.
And it surely begs the question: if a peace-loving nation such as Holland can be driven to such extremes by an increasingly authoritarian approach to policing the pandemic and relentless lockdowns, can we expect to see similar scenes on the streets throughout Europe?
At the rate this mess is going, Holland won`t be the only country headed to a civil war!!