Eight people were injured yesterday and riot police intervened to quell the crowd after an argument between residents of a refugee camp in the eastern German city of Dresden threatened to become a full blown battle.
EuropeOnline reports 14 police patrol cars and two lines of riot police ended the fight between about 50 Syrians and Afghans.
“Men and women went at each other with whatever they could grab, from a fencing stake to a bedframe,” a Dresden police spokesman said [see video below].
It remains unclear why the fight escalated between the two groups but afterwards approximately 80 police officers remained to stand guard at the tent city preventing rival groups from reigniting their fight.
The arrival of around 1,000 asylum seekers in the last week, mainly from North Africa, inflamed local anti-immigrant sentiment and set off violent protests in the city. Local police believe this culminated in the bombing of a car belonging to a local left-wing politician who had been working in support of refugees in Dresden.
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