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Germany: Dozens of injuries in clashes at
Kurdish festival
9.9.2012 |
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80 police hurt after riot at Kurdish festival in
Germany. Photo:
DAPD
80 police hurt after riot at Kurdish festival in
Germany
September 9, 2012
MANNHEIM, Germany,— Eighty police
officers were injured, one seriously, after riots
erupted at a Kurdish festival in Germany that
attracted around 40,000 Kurds from around Europe,
authorities said on Sunday.
Rioters hurled stones, bottles and fireworks at
police and damaged 13 police vehicles as violence
spun out of control in the western city of Mannheim.
Authorities responded with pepper spray. There were
31 arrests.
Police said the violence was touched off when
festival organisers tried to prevent a 14-year-old
boy entering the grounds with the flag of a banned
group.
As tempers rose, the organisers called the police,
who were attacked on arrival. Thousands of
festival-goers were involved in the violence late on
Saturday, police said.
Authorities also seized four knives and a
knuckle-duster.
A police spokesman said that when officers reached
the scene, they were immediately attacked by dozens
of visitors to the festival, who appeared to have
interpreted their arrival as a “provocation.” These,
the spokesman said, were cheered on by several
thousand others attending the event.
Related events in the days leading up to the
festival were also marred by violence. On Friday,
police forced an early end to a youth march from the
French city of Strasbourg to Mannheim after things
threatened to get out of hand. Police said that
during the march there had been a number of verbal
and physical assaults. Two days earlier,www.ekurd.net
seven people, including five police officers, were
injured in clashes between the Kurdish youth and
Turks as the march was making its way along the
route south of Mannheim.
Watch the video of the
Kurdish Festival in Mannheim 2012
Kurdish Festival in Mannheim –
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yslxkddymlc
Kurdish Festival in Mannheim –
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUjhkcno1wo
Kurdish Festival in Mannheim –
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQLKV5LN79g
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