Woman left with fractured skull after police blast water cannon during anti-lockdown riots – World News

A woman was left covered in blood and with a fractured skull after being blasted in the head with a water cannon during anti-lockdown riots in the Netherlands.

Shocking footage of the incident on a street in Eindhoven appeared to show the moment that Denisa Stastna took the full impact of a water jet fired from a police van at the weekend.

The Czech national reportedly had to have more than 15 stitches in her head after the blast of water pushed her hard against the side of a building.

She and her boyfriend have gone on to claim that they weren’t in the centre to demonstrate at the time of the riot and had only been filming.

Denisa said to omroepbrabant.nl : “We just stood there filming and walked away. They had no right to use the water cannon on us.”

Denisa’s boyfriend Michael Piksel said the couple were ‘never out for violence’ and they are now planning to take action against the police.

A spokesperson for Dutch prosecutors Janine Kramer was reported to have said about the incident: “There was an emergency order and there were several announcements that you had to leave.

“If you do not leave then you are in principle punishable.”

In the country a new tougher Covid curfew had been brought in meaning everyone had to stay at home from 9pm until 4.30am each day.

The unrest came on the second day as the tougher lockdown prompted demonstrations, which led to more than 240 arrests, police and Dutch media reported at the time.

Rioters were said to have looted stores, set fires and clashed with police in several Dutch cities on Sunday.

Footage from Urk, 50 miles northeast of Amsterdam, showed a coronavirus testing facility near the village’s harbour being broken before it was set alight.