May Day turns violent in Turkey and Germany

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - May Day protesters clashed with riot police in Germany, Turkey and Greece on Friday while thousands angry at the governments' responses to the global financial crisis took to the streets in France and Spain.

Rising unemployment across Europe and beyond has added intensity to May Day marches as last year's market crash and banking meltdown roll into the real economy.

There were fierce clashes in Berlin on Friday evening and protests in Istanbul swiftly turned violent. Greek police clashed with anarchists. Demonstrations in France and Spain appeared largely peaceful.

In the German capital, left-wing militants pelted riot police with stones, bottles and firecrackers in the most severe May Day violence to hit the city in four years.

The attacks by about 400 militants on police accompanying a protest of about 5,000 leftists in the central district of Kreuzberg, a traditional hotbed of anarchist violence on Labour Day, was unusually fierce and began before darkness fell.

"There are people out in the streets protesting peacefully against the economic crisis and there is nothing wrong with that," said police spokesman Frank Miller. "But when people burn cars and trash containers and commit other criminal acts -- that has nothing to do with political protests."

One group of protesters in central Berlin pelted the Finance Ministry building with brightly coloured paint bombs.

Earlier, there were clashes in Hamburg and outbreaks of violence in Ulm, Dortmund, Mainz and Verden.