Following a new round of protests in Europe against restrictions to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus police turned to more drastic measures.

Iran PressEurope: Protesters clashed with police in Germany and Croatia and some took to the streets in Switzerland on Saturday as new lockdowns were introduced in France, Poland and Ukraine to battle a third wave of coronavirus.

Police used pepper spray to disperse people protesting against coronavirus curbs in the German city of Kassel in one of the country's largest such rallies so far this year. 

 The protest attracted between 15,000 and 20,000 demonstrators, a Kassel police spokesman told AFP, making it one of the largest such rallies so far this year. 

Meanwhile, in Paris, images showed eerily quiet streets as non-essential shops in the city were closed from Saturday for at least a month to try to grapple with rising infection rates.  

In total, a third of France's population woke up to new restrictions.

In Poland most shops will be shut for the next three weeks along with hotels and cinemas, with similar measures introduced in Ukraine's. 219