Mass brawl erupts between far-right extremists and asylum seekers in German town

Clashes broke out between dozens of asylum seekers and far-right extremists in an eastern German city, forcing police to call in reinforcements to quell the violence, police said Thursday.

Around 20 youth asylum seekers sparked the violence on Wednesday night in the city of Bautzen, police chief Uwe Kilz said, when they began flinging bottles and wooden slats at some 80 German young men and women from the far-right scene.

The right-wing extremists, many of whom were drunk, returned the abuse with stones and bottles, he added, in the latest incident to hit the small former communist town, which has been the scene of several eruptions of hostility toward refugees.

The arrival of around one million asylum seekers in 2015 has deeply polarised Germany, and fuelled a surge in support for right-wing populists AfD.

The group of asylum seekers, identified as unaccompanied minors, also threw projectiles at the 100 officers sent in to stop the clashes, said Kilz, adding that police had to use pepper spray and batons to separate the groups.

The battling sides subsequently left the scene, but the far-right extremists broke up into smaller groups and chased the migrants to a refugee shelter.