Riots break out in Stuttgart as 500 people loot stores, attack police officers and smash up vehicles
19 officers injured. Rioters kicked officers, broke into shops and smashed up vehicles in early hours. At least 500 were involved in carnage described as 'completely out of control'
Nineteen police officers were injured during riots and looting in Stuttgart last night after checks over suspected drug dealing sparked a 500-strong revolt.
Twenty-four people were arrested after gangs of thugs kicked officers, broke into shops, smashed up vehicles and marauded through the German city until the small hours of the morning.
At least 500 were involved, with officials describing the carnage as 'completely out of control' and that it had devolved 'into real riots.'
The unrest was sparked after officers searched a 17-year-old for drugs as youths partied in a central park. Groups of young men threatened the officers who were 'confronted in an extremely aggressive manner, attacked and injured,' a police report said.
Around 200 took up against the officers, hurling bottles and stones at them in the central Schlossplatz, an iconic parade ground which is bordered by lawns.
Goods lie on the floor after people break into a shop on Marienstrasse in Stuttgart on Saturday night. At least 500 were involved, with officials describing the carnage as 'completely out of control' and that it had devolved 'into real riots.'
Footage showed people wearing hoods and masks rushing in and out of broken store fronts. Clothing shops, a jewellers and a phone shop were among those targeted.Forty stores were smashed into, with at least nine of those being looted.
Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, has a population of more than 600,000
Numbers swelled as others started attacking storefronts on a nearby shopping street, tearing paving stones out of the ground and hurling them through windows.
Videos filmed by youths on the anarchic front lines were shared widely on social media, some with rap music accompaniments.
One clip showed a lone officer being kicked to the ground as he attempted to arrest another man while being surrounded by a baying mob.
The rioters took up bats and threw projectiles at police vans, leaving at least 12 vehicles badly damaged.
Other footage showed people wearing hoods and masks rushing in and out of broken store fronts. Clothing shops, a jewellers and a phone shop were among those targeted.
Forty stores were smashed into, with at least nine of those being looted.
Dutzende gewalttätige Kleingruppen haben in der Nacht zum Sonntag in der Innenstadt von #Stuttgart randaliert und mehrere Polizisten verletzt. Inzwischen hat sich die Lage beruhigt. Die Hintergründe der Auseinandersetzung sind noch unklar. x.swr.de/s/12v0
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Goods lie on the floor after people broke into a shop on Marienstrasse in Stuttgart, Germany, Sunday, June 21, 2020
The display window of a shop stands smashed following violent clashes between rioters and police that also led to looting
Workers repair damage to a display window of a shop following violent clashes between rioters and police that also led to looting the night before
he display window of a McDonalds restaurant stands smashed following violent clashes between rioters and police
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Around 280 heavily armoured officers were deployed to quell the violence and investigations are ongoing as to precisely what motivated the chaos.
Stuttgart Police Vice President Thomas Berger told Bild: 'I have been a police officer for 30 years and have experienced a lot, but there have never been scenes like this in Stuttgart.
'I am shocked. I've never seen anything like it. The level of violence is unprecedented.'
On Sunday, Mayor Fritz Kuhn tweeted that he was 'shocked about the violent outbreak,' called it a 'sad Sunday for Stuttgart' and pledged it would be investigated 'thoroughly.'
Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, has a population of more than 600,000.
Glasses are seen on the floor as a display window of a shop stands smashed following violent clashes between rioters and police that also led to looting
The display window of a shop stands smashed following violent clashes with police
The display window of a shop stands smashed following violent clashes with officers in Stuttgart last night
Rioters who turned Stuttgart into 'a battlefield' during night of violence chanted 'Allahu Akbar' and were 'mainly young people with a migration background' police reveal
- Rioters in Stuttgart threw stones and bottles at police and even paramedics
- Looters shouted 'Allahu Akbar' as they ransacked shops in Stuttgart on Saturday night and most of those arrested came from a 'migrant background', it has emerged.
Rioters attacked police with stones and bottles and even targeted paramedics who were trying to help an injured person, officials said after clashes over a drugs arrest escalated into the city's worst-ever night of rioting.
Footage verified by German media showed some of the rioters chanting 'Allahu Akbar' as they ran down a street during the night-time violence.
Goods lie on the floor after people break into a shop on in Stuttgart on Saturday night in what police have described as the city's worst-ever night of violence
Footage verified by German media showed some of the rioters chanting 'Allahu Akbar' as they ran down a street during the night-time violence
Stuttgart's deputy police chief Thomas Berger said that the hundreds of looters had come from the 'party scene' and the 'Saturday night scene'.
In his 30 years as a police officer he had never seen violence like this and 'there have never been any scenes like this in Stuttgart,' he said.
Berger said the violence had erupted during a 'totally normal' encounter in which police arrested a German teenager on suspicion of a drugs offence.
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Some 200 to 300 people immediately started attacking police and the crowd of rioters eventually grew as high as 500, he said.
The rioters even threw bottles at paramedics who had been called to an 'emergency' at the scene, he said.
19 police officers were hurt and the number could yet rise because some of them may not have reported their injuries at the time, it is believed.
Police said 40 shops had been attacked while 12 police vehicles were damaged, some of them so badly that they had to be taken out of service.
The display window of a shop stands smashed following violent clashes with officers in Stuttgart last night
Goods lie on the floor after people broke into a shop on Marienstrasse in Stuttgart during a night of violence on Saturday and early Sunday
Workers repair damage to a display window of a shop following violent clashes between rioters and police that also led to looting the night before
Police chief Franz Lutz told a press conference that 'at the moment we can rule out a left-wing or indeed any political motivation' for the violence.
However, the 'party scene' which has re-emerged after the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown has recently seen a growing anti-police sentiment in social media posts, he said.
Police forces have been the subject of widespread anger around the world since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.
Crowds in Stuttgart threw stones and bottles while smaller groups ran through surrounding streets breaking shop windows, according to officers.
Police said 40 businesses were vandalised and nine of them looted before the violence was finally brought under control at around 4.30am.
'These are unbelievable scenes which have left me speechless and which I've not experienced in my 46 years in the police,' Lutz said.
'There was a never-before-seen dimension of open violence against police and massive property damage,' he said.
'It is a sad day for Stuttgart and also for the police.'
Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, has a population of more than 600,000
The display window of a shop stands smashed following violent clashes between rioters and police that also led to looting
Footage showed people wearing hoods and masks rushing in and out of broken store fronts. Clothing shops, a jewellers and a phone shop were among those targeted.Forty stores were smashed into, with at least nine of those being looted.
Thomas Strobl, the interior minister of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg which includes Stuttgart, said the 'pictures reaching us from America may have led to a certain aggression'.
Speaking to regional broadcaster SWR, he said authorities would respond with 'everything at our disposal' to track down and punish the rioters.
Hans-Jürgen Kirstein, the head of a police union, told Bild that 'young people with a migration background were at the front of the riots'.
The foreign nationals arrested included suspected rioters from Bosnia, Portugal, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.
German police and media have increasingly tended to state a suspect's nationality after a controversy over New Year's Eve attacks on women in Cologne in 2015, when it was not initially revealed that some of the suspects were asylum seekers.
Stuttgart mayor Fritz Kuhn, a member of the Green party, called the attacks on police 'unacceptable'.
He said that more people were on the street on Saturday night because many clubs and discos remained closed because of coronavirus.
'One cause was likely alcohol, another the addiction to social media film clips,' Kuhn said.
Video taken on mobile phones circulated widely on social media, with police asking witnesses to upload footage that could assist their investigation.
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