Police use tear gas and water cannons on Gaza protest in Geneva

Audio By Carbonatix

(Corrects grammatical errors in paragraphs 2 and 5.)

By Olivia Le Poidevin and Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -Police sprayed tear gas on protesters in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday evening as they marched in support of the Gaza flotilla, eyewitnesses told Reuters, which the police confirmed.

“We were retreating and suddenly got heavily gassed,” an eyewitness told Reuters, describing a burning sensation in their eyes and difficultly breathing.

Israel’s interception of the flotilla sparked protests in Geneva and Bern, as well as in Italy and Colombia on Thursday.

Israeli forces intercepted around 40 boats carrying aid and more than 400 foreign activists, including some Swiss nationals, and Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, to Gaza.

A photo shared with Reuters by an eyewitness in Geneva showed a large plume of white smoke coming from a street filled with protesters, which they described as tear gas.

A second eyewitness told Reuters that they saw a large white vehicle spray water on the front line of protesters, which a video shared by the Swiss national broadcaster RTS also showed.

Alexandre Brahier, spokesperson for the Geneva police, said that around 3,000 people, mostly adults and young men, had joined the protest.

“We had to use control measures including tear gas and water cannons,” he said, adding that protesters were not carrying dangerous arms but were “throwing things”, causing some damage to property.

Such confrontations are rare for Switzerland although pro-Gaza protests have been gathering momentum in recent weeks.

“Large protests are to be expected in big cities but it’s not every day that we need to resort to control measures like this,” Brahier added.

Mobile phone footage shared with Reuters showed flares being thrown amidst the crowd, as hundreds of people moved down a crammed street in central Geneva.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Alistair Bell)