Greta Thunberg detained by Danish police at pro-Palestinian protest

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COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Danish police detained activist Greta Thunberg at a Copenhagen protest against the war in Gaza and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the organisers of the demonstration said.

Thunberg was later released from detention, according to Danish media reports, and the daily Ekstra Bladet showed video footage of her walking out of a police station.

Six people had been detained at the Copenhagen University after about 20 people blocked the entrance to a building and three entered, a police spokesperson said without commenting on individual detainees.

Widely known for her campaign to end man-made climate change, Swedish-born Thunberg has increasingly taken up the Palestinian cause and said in May such protests “should be everywhere”.

Video posted by Students Against the Occupation, a pro-Palestinian student group, showed uniformed police officers leading Thunberg and other detainees into a police van while handcuffed or with their hands tied behind their backs.

Thunberg wore a scarf around her shoulders imprinted with the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh pattern, a common symbol among pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

The Copenhagen University may take disciplinary action against enrolled students who took part in the protest, Kristian Cedervall Lauta, prorector of education at the university said in an email. Thunberg is not a student at the university.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Isabelle Yr Carlsson, writing by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Timothy Heritage)