Cars burning in Leipzig as protesters ask top court to permit demo

Germany's top court received an urgent application to allow a demonstration in Leipzig to go ahead, that the authorities had banned on concerns about indications it could turn violent, reported dpa.

The application, filed with the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, called for the ban to be overturned so that a radical leftist protest could go ahead.

The administrative court in Leipzig had already rejected an urgent application against the ban by the city's assembly authority late Friday afternoon.

The Constitutional Court is Germany's highest court and decides whether legislation violates the country's Basic Law.

The urgent application with the constitutional complaint was received on Saturday morning, a court spokeswoman said, adding that it was unclear when a decision would be made.

The application will be processed as soon as possible, she said, ahead of the protest that had been planned for 5 pm (1500 GMT).

Police in the city remained braced for a left-wing demonstration planned for Saturday despite a court ban imposed earlier on the event due to the threat of violence.

Authorities still expected people to attend the so-called "Day X" protest for a 28-year-old student sentenced to five years in prison for assaulting alleged or actual neo-Nazis. Three co-defendants were also jailed.

Meanwhile several vehicles and rubbish bins had been set on fire early on Saturday afternoon.

There were fewer than 10 fires in Leipzig, mainly in the south and south-west, according to a police spokeswoman.

Police were anticipating further violence by left-wing extremists in the eastern German city after riots on Friday night which had already caused considerable damage. Seventeen emergency vehicles were damaged and other vehicles belonging to bystanders were set on fire.

In anticipation of further protests, police set up checkpoints on roads into parts of Leipzig earlier on Saturday.

Although "criminal offences were still committed" overnight, the city was generally calmer after the unrest on Friday evening in which a number of officers were injured, police told dpa.

By early morning, four provisional arrests had been made for aggravated breach of the peace, according to the latest reports. The number of injured officers was also put at 23, although only one required hospital treatment.

Violence escalated quickly in the city on Friday evening as around 700 hooded individuals attacked police at what was an initially peaceful gathering.

Stones and fireworks flew at officers from the crowd, according to a dpa reporter at the scene. Barricades made of rubbish bins and construction site barriers burned at the site of the disturbance in the Connewitz district.

The police used tear gas and, according to their own statements, were "pelted with objects" from rooftops. Barricades erected by the rioters were removed around midnight (2200 GMT).

On social networks, there had been a call from left-wingers for a large gathering to show solidarity for the jailed student, identified only as Lina E under German privacy laws. This call went out despite the court ban on the demonstration on Saturday.

Lina E was provisionally released after the verdict was announced on Wednesday because she had been in pre-trial detention for two and a half years. The court also cited health reasons and media coverage as reasons for her release.