Centred around the concept of corporate greed and anti-capitalist views, tens of thousands of protestors are set to descend on Hamburg this weekend as it hosts the annual G20 summit.

The G20, which consists of a series of formal and informal meeting between world leaders, is often the subject of protests by “advocacy groups calling for change on a variety of topics such as environmental policies, trade deals and labour laws,” explains Global News.

But not all become violent or controversial like the one happening now in Hamburg.

Although demonstrations in the northern German city began on Sunday with a group of about 4 000 protestors, tensions escalated last night when protesters “hurled objects and set fire to vehicles, while officers responded with water cannons and tear gas,” reports The Atlantic.

Titled “Welcome to Hell”, last night the numbers increased to around 12 000, many of whom have come together not only against capitalism but President Donald Trump, too:

The ominous slogan “symbolize[s] that G20 policies worldwide are responsible for hellish conditions like hunger, war, and the climate disaster.”

Sounds about right. The violence was triggered when a group known as the “black bloc”, consisting of young people wearing black hoods, masks, and scarves, were asked to remove their masks by police if they wanted to proceed.

They were attempting to move towards the red zone in the city centre where the summit, which begins today, is hosted.

Even after organisers of the protest called it off at around 7PM, protestors continued and began to “set fire to vehicles, damage local buildings, and hurl bottles, stones, and flares at officers”.

Here’s footage from last night:

LIVE: See footage from the #G20 protests in Hamburg. https://t.co/HdpQquHqrV pic.twitter.com/ASCYqaHhHj

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 6, 2017

And you thought we were bad. Ha. This shit happens everywhere.

https://twitter.com/karadaniellefox/status/883027518558793729

More than 70 police officers were reported injured and now security forces are gearing up in an effort to defend off as many as 100 000 protestors this weekend.

This was the situation this morning:

From @karadaniellefox at protests near #G20: Police aggressively kettling in protests, who are shouting "This is what democracy looks like." pic.twitter.com/yx0Lh57Y2J

— Josh Berlinger (@joshberlinger) July 7, 2017

Got a ring to it, doesn’t it?

The city’s skyline is already filled with smoke:

Check out what they did to these 12 Porche early this morning. From Jalopnik:

Police said Thursday that unidentified perpetrators set the cars alight in the city’s Eidelstedt district shortly before 4 a.m. The blaze was extinguished before 6 a.m.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his team have been unable to find suitable accommodation in the city after attempting to book a little too late.

Seriously:

In an ironic twist for the hotel chain owner, every luxury hotel in town seemed to be booked up. There do not appear to be any Trump-owned properties in the northern German city.

Buzzfeed did some digging and found that King Salman of Saudi Arabia and his massive entourage are staying at the Four Seasons as well two other high-end hotels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is staying at the Park Hyatt and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will make camp at the Atlantic Kempinski with India and Canada.

It’s going to be one interesting weekend.

[source: globalnews&jalopnik&telegraph&abcnews]