Police use water cannon and helicopter after heavy riots in Heusden-Zolder

Heusden-Zolder – A parade on Sunday afternoon of Kurds with their flags completely escalated on Sunday evening. Hundreds of people took to the streets. The Lindeman district was closed off. The Kurds, who were hiding in a house, were evacuated around 7 p.m.

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On Sunday afternoon, several cars with Kurdish flags drove through Koolmijnlaan. “According to the information we have, a Turkish youth was tackled by the demonstrators during that parade,” says the mayor of Houthalen-Helchteren Alain Yzermans (Vooruit). “That news spread through the neighborhoods like wildfire. A few hundred of them went to Kolderstraat where the Kurds were hiding in a house.”

The police cordoned off the house to keep people out. Some car windows were shattered. A water cannon and a helicopter were used to disperse the people. The area was closed off. The action is led by the CARMA police. Teams have been sent from various other police zones to calm the riots there.

But around 8 p.m. the situation was still very tense. “The people in the house were evacuated. Their cars were seized. And the police will be patrolling here all night. The rioters now seem to be moving towards the mine sites because it is rumored that buses of Kurds are on their way here. So the situation is certainly not yet under control.”