02/06/2003

Police action injures two during G8 Summit protests

Two Britons have been hospitalised as Swiss police moved in to prevent separate G8 Summit protests.

The most seriously injured was veteran protestor 39-year-old Martin Shaw, who suffered multiple fractures when he fell 60 feet into a river after police cut a rope attaching him to at a bridge in Lausanne.

Mr Shaw and a woman were apparently trying to stop traffic using the rope during a sit down protest by around 15 protestors. Mr Shaw fell into shallow water when the rope was severed, but the woman was hauled back onto the bridge. According to Swiss police the officer had not noticed that Mr Shaw was attached to the rope. His injuries are not thought to be life threatening, and Swiss authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.

The second Briton, 31-year-old News photographer Dan Smallman, received serious lacerations to his leg when a stun grenade exploded at his feet.

Mr Smallman required extensive surgery in a Genava hospital.

Both incidents happened at the 10-mile security perimeter set up around the G8 Summit which is being held at Evian on the shores of Lake Lausanne on the Franco-Swiss border.

Swiss police estimate that up to 50,000 protestors have taken part in the demonstrations that, while largely peaceful, have seen police respond with tear gas and stun grenades to rioting and looting in Lausanne and Geneva.

(SP)

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