Anti-Group of 20 protests smashed windows of a police car and set it ablaze after thousands of demonstrators began a march through central Toronto in the biggest rally yet amid a meeting of global leaders.
The police car was burning at the corner of Bay and Wellington streets. Protesters also threw rocks at windows at First Canadian Place, headquarters of Bank of Montreal, while others spray painted slogans including "bomb the banks" on the building.
Demonstrators who met at Queen"s Park, site of the Ontario provincial legislature, began a march heading south toward the downtown security zone that encircles the G-20 venue and then west along Queen St. West and north along Spadina Ave. Police estimated the crowd at 4,000, CP24 TV news reported.
Police set up two lines to block the crowd, first with a group of officers on bicycles turning the demonstrators away from the security zone. A block further south, police in riot gear and on horseback blocked an intersection. The Toronto Transit Commission closed subway service and regional train service into downtown was halted.
A 12-block section of the central core is surrounded by concrete barriers and three-meter (10-foot) high metal fencing, part of Canada"s largest-ever security operation with 20,000 police and security guards. Canada is spending as much as C$1.2 billion ($1.16 billion) for the meetings to host world leaders, including C$930 million on security.
(Bloomberg)
(All photos by AP)
