213 officers injured, 203 protesters detained as G20 enters final da

At least 213 police officers had been injured and 203 protesters detained in Hamburg Saturday as the Group of 20 summit neared its end following two days of, at times, intense violence, foreign media say.

A police spokesman confirmed the figures, saying that the number of injured officers was likely to rise during the course of the day. No reliable figures were available on the number of injured protesters.

The figure for those detained stretches back to June 22, when the first activities targeting the summit began.

Clean-up operations were under way across the city after a night of violent protests that saw rioters loot supermarkets and shops, set fire to garbage containers and attack police vehicles.

Seventy-seven people ended up in police detention, the spokesman said. Thirteen alone were detained when police stormed a building in the Schanzenviertel district of Hamburg, the epicentre of anti-capitalist protests against the summit.

Television footage showed officers forcing their way into buildings and standing on rooftops while helicopters with searchlights circled overhead. Armoured vehicles were used to plough through barricades.

Hamburg police spokesman Timo Zill, who was attacked by demonstrators on Thursday but managed to flee in an ambulance, told German newspaper Bild that the city's police force had "never experienced this level of hate and violence."

Hamburg police requested urgent backup from across Germany on Friday, resulting in the arrival of some 2,000 additional officers, taking the total number of people policing the summit to 21,000.

The violence began on Thursday at the so-called "Welcome to Hell" rally, and intensified again late Friday. Although the demonstration has targeted the G20, it has sometimes devolved into fighting with police.

At times, demonstrators did manage to disrupt the programme. US President Donald Trump was forced to take the long way to the summit on Friday and his first lady Melania Trump couldn't leave their residence due to security concerns. On Saturday, Trump referenced "interruptions" surrounding the event.

Some 100,000 people are expected at two large-scale protests taking place on Saturday, with the police spokesman saying that further violence could not be ruled out, - foreign media reported.