BERLIN: Several police officers were hurt in clashes with residents of a high-rise apartment block in the German city of Goettingen who had been placed under quarantine over a coronavirus outbreak, authorities said on Sunday.

The violence erupted on Saturday as a group of residents sought to break through a metal barrier installed to keep the 700 people living in the residential complex in to prevent possible transmission of the virus.

Some flung stones, bottles and wooden slats at officers, the city's police chief Uwe Luehrig told journalists on Sunday.

Residents in the complex were put under quarantine on Thursday after two of them were found to be infected with COVID-19. By Friday, 120 people in the building tested positive.

Goettingen is one of several outbreak clusters that have emerged in Germany since lockdown restrictions were lifted in May, including a huge cluster at a slaughterhouse in the North-Rhine Westphalia district of Guetersloh.