UNPRECEDENTED OPERATION
About 20,000 law enforcement officers, including policemen from other German federal states, will be on duty in Hamburg during the event.
Mounted police units, thousands of police cars, one plane, at least 17 helicopters, 213 K-9 dogs and possibly drones will be deployed to secure the two-day event.
About 4,000 police officers would protect the city's airport and the main railways station. The police officers would also patrol the port of Hamburg and the river of Elbe.
"This is the largest operation in the history of Hamburg's police," Ralf Martin Meyer, Hamburg's police chief, said.
TO PROTECT G20 PARTICIPANTS
Special units of law enforcement agencies from Austria and the Netherlands would help the city to ensure the security during the event. The units' officers would be escorting the heads of states and the governments arriving in the German port city.
The German authorities have established a special security zone around the exhibition center that would host the summit. The access to the zone is strictly restricted.
DEMONSTRATIONS
A number of demonstrations is expected to take place in the German city during the summit and ahead of it. The largest of them is expected to attract up to 100,000 protesters, including representatives of environmental groups, trade unions and human rights organizations among others on Saturday.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that peaceful demonstrations would not be banned during the summit, but any violent protests would be suppressed.
"We estimate that about 8,000 people, potentially ready to carry out violent acts, can show up here. Maybe not all of them would arrive [to Hamburg]… Of course it is possible that many of them would avoid violence," the minister said, adding that the authorities had been well prepared for any violations of public order.
The city's shops have also taken steps to protect themselves from potential clashes between the protesters and police officers.
