AMSTERDAM: Dutch police used water cannon, dogs and mounted police to disperse a protest in central Amsterdam on Sunday against coronavirus lockdown restrictions and detained more than 100 people for throwing stones and fireworks.

The demonstration in the city's Museum Square, which violated a ban on public gatherings, came the day after the government introduced a nightly curfew for the first time since World War II.

Protesters, organised in part by restaurant owners fed up with the country's long-lasting lockdown measures, carried a banner saying "Stop The Lockdown". Fearing a riot or a disease-spreading event, Mayor Femke Halsema had designated the square as a "high-risk zone" and gave police the power to pre-emptively frisk people for weapons.