‘Blockupy’ movement activists are surrounded by police as they march yesterday through the Terminal 1 at the airport in Frankfurt Main, Germany. At least 1,000 people took part in anti-austerity protest and other demonstrations in Frankfurt. The protests were organised by the so-called ‘Blockupy’ movement against cuts in government spending in the eurozone.

DPA/AFP/Frankfurt

At least 1,000 people blocked streets during a three-hour anti-austerity protest outside the European Central Bank (ECB) building in the German city of Frankfurt yesterday.

A small number of masked protesters attempted to break the police cordon around the ECB offices. Police used pepper spray to stop them.

The protest was organised by the so-called “Blockupy” movement against cuts in government spending in the eurozone.

It is an alliance of leftist parties and the Occupy movement which had petered out after holding a protest camp outside the ECB office in 2011.

“We have blockaded the ECB,” a spokeswoman said. “The business operations of the ECB have been successfully interrupted.” Police disputed this, saying some outside access to the building had remained.

Blockupy said 3,000 of its supporters were gathered in Frankfurt. Police, however, put the number at 1,000 to 1,400.

The ECB had made extensive preparations to keep operations running during the protest.

Around 400 then moved to Deutsche Bank’s headquarters to protest against the involvement of Germany’s biggest lender in foodstuff speculation.

Following that, some 500 protesters picketed stores of major retailers such as Primark on Frankfurt’s main shopping mile.

And then around 500 made their way to the city’s airport to protest against Germany’s deportation policies.

Police declined to say how many officers have been deployed in the city centre, but an AFP reporter on the scene estimated that there were several hundred.

“Our protests are our way of saying ‘No’ to the ruling policy of global starvation, the exploitation of people and natural resources,” said Blockupy spokeswoman Ani Diesselmann.

The demonstrators wanted to make a stance against the “everyday consequences of low-way labour, social marginalisation, housing shortages and racist deportation policies”.

Today, which marks the ECB’s 15th birthday, a much bigger demonstration is planned in the city centre with organisers expecting as many as 20,000 participants.

A year ago, much of Frankfurt’s city centre was sealed off by police for days amid fears that a similar day of protests could turn violent.