Hundreds protest COVID restrictions in Helsinki

Several hundreds of people on Saturday gathered at the Citizens’ Square in Helsinki protesting against the restrictive measures taken in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

About 300 people gathered at the Senate Square and started a procession at about 2:00pm. The number of participants of the procession increased to about 400 by the time it reached the Citizens’ Square via the OODI library.

The police said the demonstrators did not follow the instructions of maintaining safe distance correctly.

They violated the rules that limited gatherings in the Helsinki-Uusimaa region to six people.

The protesters were committed to organise the demonstration after dividing into a number of small groups but merged when the demonstration began.

The police, however, allowed the protesters to deliver speeches, said the Helsinki police in a Twitter post.

“An uncontrolled number of people have packed in, though the plan was to have 15 groups of six people. Other protesters were supposed to remain outside the area," reported the national broadcaster Yle, quoting Police Inspector Jarmo Heinonen.

Earlier, on 14 February, people also staged several demonstrations in Helsinki city centre protesting against the coronavirus restrictions.

About a dozen of the demonstrations were held at Citizens’ Square and ended peacefully without any unwanted incident that time.