Shock in Germany as hundreds run riot in Stuttgart
- Hundreds of partygoers ran riot, attacking police and plundering stores after a 17-year-old suspected of using drugs was apprehended soon after midnight
- The scale of the violence overwhelmed the officers, forcing them to call in reinforcements from other parts of the state
German authorities expressed shock on Sunday over a rampage of an “unprecedented scale” overnight in the city centre of Stuttgart, where hundreds of partygoers ran riot, attacking police and plundering stores after smashing shop windows.
Two dozen people, half of them German nationals, were arrested provisionally, as police reported 19 colleagues hurt.
“They were unbelievable scenes that have left me speechless. In my 46 years of police service, I have never experienced this,” said Stuttgart police chief Frank Lutz.
Tensions built up soon after midnight when officers carried out checks on a 17-year-old German man suspected of using drugs, said Stuttgart deputy police chief Thomas Berger.
Crowds who were milling around at the city’s biggest square, the Schlossplatz, immediately rallied around the young man and began flinging stones and bottles at police.