German police tighten security on Leipzig roads after extremist riot

Police set up checkpoints on roads into parts of Leipzig on Saturday in anticipation of more violence by left-wing extremists in the eastern German city.

Although "criminal offences were still committed" overnight, the city was generally calmer after the unrest on Friday evening in which a number of officers were injured, police told dpa.

By early morning, four provisional arrests had been made for aggravated breach of the peace, according to the latest reports. The number of injured officers was also put at 23, although only one required hospital treatment.

Police in the city remained braced for a left-wing demonstration planned for Saturday despite a court ban imposed earlier on the event due to the threat of violence.

Authorities still expected people to attend the so-called "Day X" protest for a 28-year-old student sentenced to five years in prison for assaulting alleged or actual neo-Nazis. Three co-defendants were also jailed.

Violence escalated quickly in the city on Friday evening as around 700 hooded individuals attacked police at what was an initially peaceful gathering.

Stones and fireworks flew at officers from the crowd, according to a dpa reporter at the scene. Barricades made of rubbish bins and construction site barriers burned at the site of the disturbance in the Connewitz district.

The police used tear gas and, according to their own statements, were "pelted with objects" from rooftops. Barricades erected by the rioters were removed around midnight (2200 GMT).

On social networks, there had been a call from left-wingers for a large gathering to show solidarity for the jailed student, identified only as Lina E. under German privacy laws. This call went out despite the court ban on the demonstration on Saturday.

Lina E. was provisionally released after the verdict was announced on Wednesday because she had been in pre-trial detention for two and a half years. The court also cited health reasons and media coverage as reasons for her release.