(Frankfurt) Thirty-nine people were arrested for attacking police officers who were trying to contain a brawl during an open-air party gathering thousands of young people in central Frankfurt, police said. German city on Sunday.
Posted on 19 July 2020 at 8 o'clock58
France Media Agency
Five police officers were injured in the violence, which erupted around 3 a.m. (19 a.m. Saturday, ET). A “rain of bottles” fell on the police who tried to intervene in a fight involving about 30 people gathered in the Place de l'Opéra.
This square has become a popular gathering place for what the media call “corona parties”, with bars and nightclubs still closed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Some 3000 people, mainly young people, gathered in the square on Saturday evening, but only 500 800 were still present when the brawl broke out, said Frankfurt police chief Gerhard Bereswill at a press conference.
A small group of policemen approached to help a bleeding man and calm the fight, but the crowd turned to law enforcement.
“What I find particularly abominable is that onlookers applauded when my colleagues were hit by bottles,” he added.
Police reinforcements then arrived and cleared the square, under a “rain of bottles” from the angry crowd, he said.
The mayor of the city, Peter Feldmann, condemned on Twitter the “unacceptable” behavior of the participants in the violence and called for a stronger police presence in this type of rally. City officials will meet on Monday to discuss possible responses to the unrest.
A total of 38 men and a woman were arrested. Most are men aged 17 to 21 years old, “for most of them with an immigrant background, ”according to the police chief.
Eight people remained under arrest on Sunday and could be charged with disturbing public order.
These incidents are reminiscent of those that occurred in Stuttgart last month, where nightly violence had erupted following a police check for a drug case, which had escalated.
Several hundred young people, some heavily alcoholic, had wreaked havoc for several hours in the city center, looting shops and attacking the police and rescue forces. The case had outraged Germany.
German police and relief unions have alerted authorities to the fact that they face growing hostility when carrying out their work.
Even though most of the revelers were peaceful, the Frankfurt police noted an increase in attacks on the police in the early morning after the outdoor parties, according to Gerhard Bereswill.
The incidents on Sunday marked “the culmination” of these attacks, he added.
Several police vehicles and a bus stop were also attacked, causing damage reaching thousands of euros.
