it took German police five hours to evict tenants from one of Berlin's last former squats today after angry residents booby-trapped the house.

There were dozens of arrests after 2,500 police officers were deployed in a huge operation to clear the Liebig 14 commune in the eastern district of Friedrichshain.

The 25 residents had refused to leave after losing a lengthy legal battle that has become a focus point for the anti-gentrification movement in Berlin and other German cities.

Six men and three women were found in the property when the police and bailiffs finally gained entry using axes and sledgehammers to break through barricades of barbed wire, sharpened metal poles and concrete blocks.

Police said they used pepper spray after they were showered with fire extinguisher fluid inside the building. The eviction was delayed after police found a number of baths in the hallway filled with a mysterious liquid with wires poking out.

The baths turned out to be harmless, but the nine residents were arrested, along with 21 protesters outside the house and around the city.


 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/02/berlin-squat-eviction-arrests-liebig-friedrichshain