Religious gathering in Espoo dispersed, 2 held

The police on Sunday foiled a move to hold a religious gathering at the Läkkitori Square in Leppävaara of Espoo on Sunday morning as the participants violated the current restrictive measures aimed at countering the spread of coronavirus.

The street worship service was organised by Espoon Kotikirkko (Espoo Home Church), which is a part of the Finnish Baptist Church, reported the commercial broadcaster MTV.

The police said they also arrested two people from the spot as they did not pay heed to police instructions in this regard, despite repeated requests.

The police knew that about 20 people gathered at the open place at about 10:30 in the morning without prior notification.

The police rushed to the spot and found those people did not follow the instruction of maintaining safe distance correctly. They violated the rules that limited gatherings in the Helsinki-Uusimaa region to six people, prompting the police to order the people to disperse.

The police talked to the organisers and left the spot immediately after the gathering had suspended.

A police patrol rushed to the spot again after a short while and found that the religious speech was going on and people gathered at the place.

The law-enforcers dispersed them again and arrested two people on charge of violating police order.

The police said the detainees would be fined.

Earlier, on Saturday, the police arrested 20 people in a rally held at the Market Square and the Narinkkatori Square of Helsinki, protesting against the restrictive measures taken in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.