Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Hundreds of thousands of people lined Amsterdam’s canals to watch the city’s canal boat parade, the highlight of an annual Pride festival that comes just a week after a deadly attack on a Pride event in Berlin.
Openly gay Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, dressed in a white shirt, black life vest and gold necklace, waved to crowds as he sailed in a small boat through the colourfully decorated parade of 80 vessels, waving to participants and spectators as techno music pumped from speakers along the route.
The colourful floating parade came a week after the Berlin attack left one person dead and 29 injured. A suspect, Abdul Ballout, was suspected of driving a van into a crowd near the festival Saturday night before apparently stabbing others with a machete in what authorities believe was an Islamic extremist attack.
Ballout was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said. Prosecutors said he had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said in the aftermath of the German attack that authorities in the city would “where necessary take extra measures that visitors will hopefully notice as little as possible.”
Motorboats carrying police officers cruised the canals and a helicopter hovered overhead as Saturday’s parade got underway.
Hamburg’s Pride parade, one of Germany’s biggest, also got underway Saturday with increased security.
Dozens of trucks were making their way through the centre of Germany’s second-biggest city and organisers expected about 250,000 people to attend. Hamburg’s police chief said earlier this week that roughly twice as many officers as last year would protect the event.
The boat parade is the traditional highlight of Amsterdam’s Pride. This year it coincides with a World Pride celebration that also is being hosted by the Dutch capital.
The joyful event happened against a backdrop of rising reports of verbal and physical assaults on members of the LGBTQ+ community in the Netherlands, that has long been considered a haven of tolerance.
On Friday, a court in Amsterdam convicted a man of using discriminatory language at a Pride event in the city earlier in the week. He was ordered to do 40 hours of community service.
