Anti-G8 protesters clashed with police on Wednesday and disrupted traffic near the heavily fortified hotel where Group of Eight leaders are to meet. Hooded protesters broke car windows, threw bricks and clashed with riot police in pre-dawn violence in nearby Stirling as they left camps to head to the Gleneagles hotel, which is protected by 10,000 police and a 5 mile (8 km) steel fence. Protesters put up impromptu barricades and threw obstacles on the roads around Gleneagles, blocking parts of the main highway in central Scotland for more than four hours. Cutting gear was needed to remove some activists who chained themselves together across the north-south highway. Reuters quoted Police as saying that they had made 60 arrests and eight officers needed hospital treatment for injuries suffered in the clashes. They cancelled the day's main anti-G8 march by 5,000 protesters planned for Auchterarder, which borders Gleneagles, because of "serious public disorder" and the need to close roads to ensure the summit's safety.
