Female Afghan National Police (ANP) officers aim their weapons during a drill at a training centre near the German Bundeswehr army camp Marmal in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan on December 11, 2012. (Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters/File Photo)

Medical workers walk by a police robot at the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport after travel restrictions to leave Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and China's epicentre of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, were lifted, April 8, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

A woman attends a banned demonstration planned in memory of Adama Traore, a 24-year old black Frenchman who died in a 2016 police operation which some have likened to the death of George Floyd, in front of a courthouse in Paris, France on June 2, 2020. (Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

Israeli police officers are about to push away a demonstrator during a protest against Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his residence in Jerusalem, Israel, early Sunday, August 9, 2020. (Photo by Ariel Schalit/AP Photo)

“Bruciamo tutto” (Let's burn everything) activist is removed by police after she poured red paint on the Spanish Steps to protest against femicides in Rome, Italy, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)

Riot police scuffle with pro-democracy students after hundreds of protesters stormed into a restricted area at the government headquarters, after a rally ahead of the October 1 “Occupy Central” civil disobedience movement in Hong Kong September 27, 2014. Hong Kong riot police used pepper spray on Saturday to disperse dozens of students who had stormed government headquarters, but an equal number held their ground in protests against Beijing's tightening grip on the city. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

From house breaking in Johannesburg to hippos on the loose in Tbilisi to rioters attacking a policewoman in Burundi, Reuters photographers tell the story behind some of the most iconic pictures of the year. Here: Protesters drag a female police officer accused of shooting a protester in the Buterere neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, May 12, 2015. Goran Tomasevic: Protesters started throwing stones at a group of police, who then started to run away. The policewoman in the photo, Medikintos Inabeza, 33, got left behind and then some protesters started to push her, saying that she had shot a female protestor in the stomach with an AK47 rifle. I didn't see anything of that. There were 5 or 10 protesters pushing the policewoman at first, then others came and joined in. Up to 20 or 30 protesters were surrounding her at one point. The protesters kicked and beat her very badly; I also saw a couple of knives. I thought they were going to kill her... (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Flowers are left at the scene of a hit and run following civil disturbances in the Winson Green area on August 11, 2011 in Birmingham, England. Police are continuing investigations after three people – reportedly trying to protect shops from rioting and looting in Dudley Road – were struck by a car. Police have so far arrested over 1,000 people following rioting which erupted over a four-day period across the UK. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)