Police in the Netherlands arrested 184 rioters nationwide on Monday night, according to the country's national broadcaster NOS.
Some of the fiercest clashes with police were in Rotterdam, where officers said 50 arrests were made. Police said in a statement Tuesday that a group of youths started gathering in south Rotterdam around 7:30 p.m. on Monday, and eventually totaled several hundred.
“Agents were bombarded with stones and fireworks, and the rioters were also destructive, looting various stores and committing arson,” according to police. Riot police deployed a water cannon, tear gas, and at one point an agent fired a “warning shot” after being “cornered by a number of rioters.”
It was the third night of confrontation with police in the Netherlands. A national, nightly curfew designed to reduce social contact came into effect in the country on Saturday. It runs from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m.
Several cities -- included Eindhoven, Nijmegen, and Roosendaal -- had instituted emergency orders on Monday to prevent people from entering city centers. The rules meant that no one was allowed to be in central areas between 5 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. without a legitimate reason. Ahead of Monday's demonstrations, Eindhoven municipality had tweeted a warning to residents that the city center had been declared "a safety risk area" and that police were "prepared and strict."
National police said earlier Monday that at least 250 were arrested at sometimes violent anti-lockdown protests on Sunday. Police had also used water cannon, dogs and riot police on horseback to disperse the protesters at those incidents.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday condemned the violence of anti-lockdown demonstrators over the weekend, calling their behavior “unacceptable.”
"Any normal person can only see this with horror. What are these people thinking?” Rutte said, as quoted by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
Rutte added that 99% of people in the country are sticking to the curfew.