Escalation in Leipzig
Barricades and attacks on police officers – demonstrators still surrounded in the early morning
Saxony, Leipzig: Autonomous at a burning barricade
© Sebastian Willnow / DPA
In Leipzig, the violent protests after the prison sentence against left-wing extremist Lina E. continued on Sunday night. The police spoke of “gangs of apparently violent” people.
In Leipzig, the violent protests after the prison sentence against left-wing extremist Lina E. continued on Sunday night. In the city there are “at various places gangs of apparently violent” people, said the Saxon police on Saturday evening in the online service Twitter. Emergency services were attacked and barricades were erected and set on fire. The police are clearing the barricades in the south of the city with special vehicles.
Fire brigade and police put out the barricades together. According to their own statements, the police were deployed with several hundred units and prepared “for a violent course in this phase of the operation”. “We call for prudence so that the situation does not escalate any further,” the Twitter message said.
A statement from the Leipzig Police Department also mentioned the erection of barricades. The police used water cannons to extinguish the burning barricades. The district of Connewitz was particularly affected by the riots. A police post was attacked with stones. Two officers were injured, the Saxon police said on Twitter on Sunday morning.
“Massive riots” in Leipzig
In the late afternoon, stones, bottles and an incendiary device were thrown at police officers during a demonstration in the south of Leipzig. The police surrounded some of the demonstrators and spoke of “massive riots”. According to the police, around 1,500 participants had gathered for the demonstration, a third of whom were believed to be violent. 100 demonstrators were registered. Several water cannons were launched, but were not used.
According to a police spokesman, an estimated 500 people were surrounded. The encirclement lasted until the early hours of the morning. This was announced by a spokesman for the Leipzig police on Sunday morning. On Saturday evening, the police had started taking personal details. In order to establish identities, demonstrators were also brought to the police station.
Five men have already been brought before the magistrate
There had already been violent clashes between the police and suspected left-wing extremist demonstrators on Saturday night. Five men who were arrested were brought before the magistrate at the district court in Leipzig on Saturday, the police said.
Arrest warrants were issued against all five suspects for serious breaches of the peace. They would be taken to a correctional facility. According to the information, there are two 28-year-olds and three men aged 20, 25 and 32 years.
Lina E. and three other accused men were sentenced to several years in prison by the Saxon Higher Regional Court in Dresden on Wednesday for violent attacks on right-wing extremists. The left-wing scene mobilized nationwide in protest for a so-called “Day X demo” on Saturday.