Police arrest 228 after event turns into riot with cops attacked and 32 injured

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    Some 228 people have been arrested after riots erupted at an event in Germany yesterday (Saturday, September 16).

    Cops say dozens of people, including at least 26 police officers, were injured after an Eritrean cultural festival in Stuttgart dissolved into chaos.

    About 200 people gathered near the area where the festival was due to start before throwing stones and bottles both at officers and attendees at the event.

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    Six of the cops hurt in the attacks required hospital treatment, while at least four participants and two protesters were wounded โ€“ although the extent of their injuries was not disclosed.

    Stuttgart police vice president Carsten Hoefler slammed the protesters in a statement issued the day of the unrest, adding "neither the extent nor the intensity of the violence was apparent in advance."

    "Today we were the buffer stop for an Eritrean conflict that was carried out with massive violence on the streets of Stuttgart," he added.

    Meanwhile city officials said they had seen no reason to stop the gathering from happening before the day it occurred.

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    However, they said they would learn from Saturday's outburst to prevent similar incidents occurring in the future.

    "We must take decisive action against the emergence of conflicts from other states on German soil," Stuttgart Mayor Frank Nopper said, according to German news agency dpa.

    The event on Saturday was organised by a handful of groups close to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and his government, who have been in charge in the east African country for more than 30 years.

    President Afwerki led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) to victory in the war for independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1991, but his reign has courted controversy.

    The United Nations has accused the president of leading a totalitarian regime and committing human rights abuses, while Amnesty International reported the government had taken at least 10,000 political prisoners and claimed torture is common in Eritrea under Afwerki.

    Tens of thousands of people have fled the country for Europe after claiming to have been mistreated by the government, while others are sill close to the Party and actively support it.

    Speaking about this weekend's unrest, Baden-Wรผrttemberg Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann said today (September 17): "The images of brutal riots with targeted attacks against the police are disturbing and completely unacceptable.

    "We do not tolerate conflicts from other countries being carried out violently in our country and will confront this with all severity," he added before wishing injured police a speedy recovery and thanking officers for their work.

    It's not the first time there has been uproar in connection to Eritrean cultural events in Germany.

    In the western city of Giessen, 22 police officers were injured back in July after fights broke out at an Eritrean festival.

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