Police, unsurprisingly, arrived in seconds, and the riot squads surrounded the garage.

But, despite this, the Shell station was blocked for an hour.

In Germany fuel stations are not kept in stock by tanker trucks. They run huge fuel pipelines from one to the other, linking them across the city. And in every fuel station is an emergency shut-off button.

And, low and behold, someone hit the button, shutting off the fuel supply to some if not all the Shell garages across Rostock, causing a slight headache for the multinational oil and gas company's profits that day in the lovely north-west German city.