
© CNBC/Getty ImagesProtest in Wellington, NZ against COVID-19 vaccine mandate
New Zealand's parliament is on high alert after thousands of anti-vaccination mandate protesters, some threatening violence, gathered in Wellington and across the country.
As of early Tuesday, about
2,000 people had gathered in central Wellington, and almost all the gates and entrance ways to parliament had been shut off. According to Stuff, the Speaker of the house, Trevor Mallard, said
it was the biggest increase in parliamentary security he had seen since his election in 1984.In the initial stages of the protests across the country, there were
attacks on both police and reporters. At the border with Auckland, which has been shut for weeks due to the Covid outbreak there,
a police officer was bitten by a protester. Police said in a statement that about 50 protesters had arrived at the border, and blocked traffic for an hour:
"The actions of protesters required our staff to physically intervene to move them off the road. In the process one of our officers has been bitten by an as yet unidentified protester. Actions like this are totally avoidable and poses unnecessary risk to our staff who are simply trying do their part in preventing the spread of Covid-19."
According to
Stuff, one of the country's largest news organisations, one of their photographers was grabbed and pushed by protesters in Wellington yelling anti-media abuse.
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