Armed police officers arrest a protester during the "March Against Marrakech" rally in front of European Union institutions headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 16, 2018. Belgian anti-immigration protesters took to the streets of Brussels here on Sunday to denounce the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration adopted in Marrakech, Morocco. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)
BRUSSELS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Protesters gathered here at the European Union (EU) headquarters against a United Nations migration pact on Sunday, some clashing with police violently.
The protests originated in the Schuman Roundabout, a traffic centre in the European quarters of Brussels. High-volume chants from protesters and sounds from firecrackers were heard widely near the EU buildings in the morning.
The largely-peaceful protests turned somewhat violent after protesters marching to the entrance of Berlaymont, the building of the European Commission, where some protesters threw beer cans, stones and fireworks at police, who countered them with water cannons.
Several protesters were seen by a Xinhua reporter breaking windows of Berlaymont using metals and rocks.
Reuters reported that some 5,500 people marched in the bigger protest, citing the police. Xinhua reporter at the scene estimate the crowd to be in the hundreds. Chants against the UN migration pact signed in Marrakesh were often heard.
