Prior to the incident, initial reports by police described the celebration as “quiet” and “normal,” according to a spokesperson for the city government.
By 7 p.m., however, one man had been hospitalized with first-degree burns to his face and hands, inflicted by members of a mob who were throwing fireworks at a group of homeless people outside the city’s train station.
Photo Credit: Peter Bandermann – Twitter)
Reports began to trickle in describing a “large number of young men from North Africa,” and police announced at 11:30 p.m. that they were adding reinforcement officers to aid with the much-larger-than-usual presence in the city center.
Federal police officer Volker Stall said there was an “aggressive mood” towards the public and police.
Breitbart reports that the situation turned grave at midnight, as a crowd of “at least 1,000 young men” started throwing fireworks into crowds filled with families and children, according to news outlet Ruhr Nachrichten.
When officers asked the rowdy men to stop, the men turned their aggression toward the police, instead, and began to hurl fireworks at them.
Ruhr Nachrichten also reported that “a group of Syrians sang in celebration of the ceasefire in Syria.”
However, one of the newspaper’s reporters posted a video on Twitter, with the caption ‘Syrians celebrate the truce in their country,’ showing a group of men chanting “Allahu Akhbar” around the flag of al-Qaeda and Islamic State collaborators, ‘Free Syrian Army.’
Fireworks were also launched at St. Reinold’s, Germany’s oldest church, causing firefighters to be called in to put out a fire that was ignited on the roof of the church.
The unruly crowd lit the fireworks near the church despite the city’s prohibition of lighting pyrotechnics near churches.
More than two dozen individuals were injured during the chaos. Some of the injuries were considered serious.
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