About 1,000 refugees gathered in Dortmund, Germany and began shooting fireworks into the crowd of visitors. When the police intervened, the refugees began shooting them with fireworks. Fireworks were launched at St Reinolds, Germany’s oldest church, setting the roof ablaze.
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The events of the night were described as “quiet” by police in a statement, and as “normal” by a spokesman for the city government.
But at 11:30pm police announced they were adding to their already much larger than usual presence in the city centre for New Year, sending in further reinforcements of officers.
This came after the force reported there being a “large number of young men from North Africa” in town, with federal police officer Volker Stall noting there was an “aggressive mood” towards the public and police.
At midnight, the situation threatened to escalate. A livewire published by the Ruhr Nachrichten reported that a crowd of “at least 1,000 young men” began throwing fireworks into crowds of visitors, which also included families with children. Asked by officers to stop, the mob turned to pelt fireworks at police instead.
#Silvester in #Dortmund: Syrer feiern den Waffenstillstand in ihrem Land. pic.twitter.com/Yxom6nY5QC
— Peter Bandermann (@RN_Bandermann) December 31, 2016