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Belgian police said on Sunday they had arrested around ten people among 200 to 300 looters who clashed with police on the sidelines of a Black Lives Matters demonstration in Liège.
A total of 36 police officers were injured in the clashes on Saturday, one of whom was still being treated in hospital, said Liège police chief Christian Beaupère.
The violence took place on the sidelines of a demonstration called to protest an incident Monday in Liège, when police officers arrested a woman of Congolese origin for “rebellion”.
Officers were working to identify other members of the group who looted and vandalized shops in the city center, Beaupère added, at a press conference alongside city mayor Willy Demeyer.
Beaupère underlined the organized nature of the looting and the violence that the delinquents had unleashed.
Those arrested did not come only from the eastern city of Liège and its outskirts, but from the capital Brussels.
Most of those detained were between 20 and 30 years old, but there was also a minor, he added.
Demeyer expressed his support for the police and pledged to support businesses affected by vandalism and looting.
He said he and Beaupère would attend a meeting Friday with members of the city’s sub-Saharan community, to try and build bridges.
The woman arrested on Monday filed a formal complaint accusing police of violence and racism, a charge the force dismissed, saying she resisted arrest.
Video footage of the incident shows two officers pinning him to the ground as others prevent members of the public from intervening.
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