On New Year's Eve in Leipzig's Connewitz district, characterized by left-wing alternatives, there were clashes between violent offenders and the police. An official was seriously injured. The 38-year-old had to undergo emergency surgery in the hospital after he was attacked by violence and lost consciousness, the police said on Wednesday morning.
According to the police report, shortly after midnight at the Connewitzer Kreuz, the officers were "massively attacked with stones, bottles and fireworks". A group would also have tried to put a burning shopping cart in the middle of a riot police unit and fire them with pyrotechnics. In addition to the seriously injured, three other police officers were slightly injured.
There were nine arrests, and three people were released that night. In the case of the seriously injured 38-year-old police officer, the special commission on left-wing extremism investigates LinX for attempted manslaughter. It is also about crimes such as serious breach of the peace and assault.
Around a thousand people had previously celebrated New Year's Eve at Connewitzer Kreuz. Because of the events, the area on Selneckerstrasse and Wiedebachstrasse was no longer accessible. From 2:20 am, the police cordoned off the area completely "to carry out crime scene work". The situation had calmed down shortly before.
"Obviously organized attacks"
Saxony's Interior Minister Roland Wöller (CDU) spoke on Wednesday of "conscious and targeted attacks on human life" and "serious crimes". This inhumane approach borders on attempted manslaughter and is punished with all the harshness of the rule of law.
Leipzig's police chief Torsten Schultze spoke of "obviously organized attacks" in which the perpetrators "cause or accept serious injuries to people". Schultze emphasized: "Police officers are people."
Left criticizes police violence
Left-wing politician Jule Nagel, on the other hand, tweeted that police officers had "overrun" bystanders. The member of the state parliament accuses the police of "confused maneuvers" that "disgusting police violence" ultimately caused the riots. In this context, she writes of "calculated provocation".
Uff. Cops out of #Connewitz gains a new meaning after this new year. Disgusting police violence, overrun uninvolved, confused maneuvers, calculated provocation. # le3112
- Jule Nagel (@luna_le) January 1, 2020In the Connewitz district in the south of Leipzig there are frequent clashes between autonomous people and the police. It was only in mid-December that hundreds of demonstrators "Against Gentrification, Bulls & Fascism" took to the streets.