Police and peaceful protesters were attacked during an animal rights demonstration outside a circus in Dublin, Ireland, leading to six arrests.
Staff from the Belly Wien Circus reportedly used a baseball bat, broomsticks, and shovels to attack protesters, according to activist Nicola Moore, who said she was hit on the head.
“We are all in hospital now, ambulance staff were brilliant and hospital staff doing everything they can to make sure we are ok,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “I was battered on the ground with a baseball bat to the back of the head and then collapsed.”
A few dozen activists staged a peaceful protest outside the circus venue to voice their anger against the company’s use of live animals, including three elephants, during performances.
The traveling Belly Wien Circus is banned in its native Austria as well as the Netherlands after the practice of using wild animal circuses was recently grounded.
Animal rights groups have accused the controversial circus of cruelty on numerous occasions.
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Animal rights activists are often the target of police in Ireland rather than fellow victims.
Following the "liberation" of nine lobsters from a Dublin restaurant last year, police investigated the group's leader, Laura Broxson.