Hundreds rioted Saturday night on the streets of Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, after a drug dealer was arrested.
Now, Stuttgart police confirm that the rioters are Muslim migrants who wreaked havoc on the streets and attacked police and paramedics.
Stuttgart Deputy Police Chief Thomas Berger said the riots began following the arrest of a German teenager on suspicion of drug offenses. "200 to 300 people immediately began attacking police, and the crowd of rioters gradually increased to 500 people. The rioters attacked police and threw bottles at paramedics who arrived. During 30 years of police service, I've never seen such violence and there have never been such harsh scenes in Stuttgart," Berger said.
German media broadcast photos from streets with many rioters shouting "Allahu Akbar", calling the place "a battlefield" after shops were looted and car windows smashed.
Nineteen police officers were wounded during the action, with the number still likely to rise, as apparently not all police officers have yet reported their injuries. The Stuttgart Police Department said forty stores were looted and twelve police cars totaled.
Stuttgart police said that out of the 24 rioters arrested Saturday night, 12 were foreign nationals and another three were German citizens of Muslim migrant derivation.
Senior German police officer Hans Jürgen Kirstein said "young people with migrant backgrounds were at the forefront." The German Chancellor condemned the riots and called them "abominable".
Angela Merkel's Spokesman Stephen Zeibert said: "Those who committed these acts turned against their own city, against the people they live with, and against the laws that protect us all." It remains to be seen whether Zeibert's sentiments will be adopted by the rioters as a basis for future cooperation.
