Protesters in a central German city have clashed with police over coronavirus measures, with officers using pepper spray and batons against people trying to break through barriers, according to reports.

Several thousand people participated in the protests in Kassel, and in addition to clashes with police there were also several scuffles with counter-protesters, the dpa news agency said.

Several groups, most of them far-right opponents of government’s regulations to tackle the pandemic, had called for protests on Saturday in cities across the country.

In Berlin, some 1,800 police officers were on stand-by for possible riots, but only a few dozen protesters assembled at the city’s landmark Brandenburg Gate.

Meanwhile, around 300 citizens came together on Berlin’s Unter den Linden boulevard to protest against the far-right demonstration.

Police had to intervene when some far-right protesters tried to attack press photographers, but in general, a police spokeswoman told dpa: “There’s not much going on here.”