Some of the people arrested during the unprecedented riots in Stuttgart are believed to have a migrant background.
Police arrested 24 suspects overnight from Saturday to Sunday in the southern German city, which is the state capital of Baden-Wurttemberg. Of those arrested, 12 were Germans (including three with a migrant background), and the others came from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Portugal, Iran, Iraq, and other countries, police deputy Thomas Berger has confirmed.
“It looks like it was mainly young people with a migrant background who were at the forefront of the rioting,” Hans-Jürgen Kirstein, the head of the state’s police union, told German media.
The city of 630,000 people saw what authorities called its worst riots in living memory after police stopped a white teenager for a suspected drug offence at around 11:30 p.m.
Some 200 to 300 people immediately confronted officers, throwing stones at police vans and ambulances. The crowd eventually grew to around 500 people, with dozens of small groups wreaking havoc in downtown Stuttgart. Police managed to quell the unrest after several hours after deploying additional forces and helicopters.
At least 19 cops have been injured and 12 police vehicles damaged; the rioters also attacked dozens of businesses, looting a jewelry store and a mobile phone shop, according to regional broadcaster SWR. Some of them were heard crying “Allahu Akbar” as they ran away from police.
The state interior minister, Thomas Strobl, said the rioters were from the “party scene” which is linked with drugs and alcohol. He suggested the riot may have been inspired by protests against police brutality in the United States. “It could also be that the images that have reached us from America have led to a certain aggression,” he said.