New racist attack in Germany, Sudanese badly hurt
Two Africans were attacked by right-wing extremists last weekend in Mainz, the same night as a brutal mob assault on eight Indians in the country's former communist east.
Two Africans were attacked by right-wing extremists last weekend in Mainz, in western Germany, local authorities said on Saturday, the same night as a brutal mob assault on eight Indians in the country's former communist east.
Mainz authorities said they delayed releasing the information for a week so as not to hamper the inquiry into the incident, in which a Sudanese man in his 20s was seriously injured.
They said a group of young right-wing Germans had attacked the Sudanese man and an Egyptian on the fringes of a wine festival in Guntersblum in the Rhineland Palatinate region.
The Sudanese man was hit on the head with a bottle and beaten while he was on the ground. The 39-year-old Egyptian, who tried to get help, was also struck with the neck of the bottle.
Local people intervened to rescue the men and three suspects, all in their 20s, were arrested.
The head of the Rhineland-Palatinate regional government and leader of the local Social Democratic Party (SPD), Kurt Beck, called it a cowardly attack.
The Indians were also attacked during a summer festival on Saturday night in the small town of Muegeln. A 50-strong mob of suspected neo-Nazis chased them through the streets of the town and broke down the doors of a pizzeria where they had sought refuge.
Three of the Indians were so brutally beaten they needed hospital treatment while the others escaped with minor cuts and bruises.
The deputy president of the European Commission, Franco Frattini, called for the banning of the neo-Nazi NPD party after the attack in Muegeln.