Posted on November 30, 2015

Mass Brawls Erupt in Crowded Migrant Shelters in Germany

AFP, November 29, 2015

Clashes broke out Sunday between hundreds of asylum seekers at a shelter in Berlin, in the second mass brawl to erupt over the weekend in Germany’s crowded migrant accommodations.

Several people were arrested at the fight that started in the food distribution queues at the former airport of Tempelhof, which has been turned into a temporary accommodation for 1,200 refugees, an AFP photographer witnessed.

The brawl came just hours after another mass fight at a refugee shelter in the Berlin suburb of Spandau, where migrants went at each other with fire extinguishers, a police spokesman said.

Windows were smashed, sofas were thrown, and fire extinguishers emptied, said police, adding that several residents of the shelter were wounded.

Some 500 people evacuated the building “in fear and panic” over the dispute.

Separately, two other fights broke out in other shelters.

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Such disturbances have occurred before in other shelters in Germany, with tensions escalating quickly between often traumatised people from different cultures sharing packed spaces.

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