Duisburg: Rocker fights escalate - bullet holes in shop windows and Dixi

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Forensics in Duisburg: Four injured in shots on the market square

Photo: Erwin Pottgiesser / dpa

There are dramatic scenes that are filmed on Wednesday evening on a market square in the north of Duisburg: shots can be heard, people flee, get to safety, running and shouting.

Bullet holes in a car, in a shop window, and a dixi toilet was also riddled with seven bullets.

Four people were injured, two of them seriously, according to the police nobody is in mortal danger.

The morning after the excess of violence, parts of Hamborn's Altmarkt are cordoned off, forensics are still working, there are markings all over the floor.

Deniz Güner is standing on the market square, the man grew up here and is a candidate for the CDU.

His campaign slogan is »German laws on the streets of Duisburg«.

For this, he says, "I was approached from several sides".

What happens when laws are not complied with can now be seen here.

It's a miracle no bystanders were injured.

"It's no longer safe here," says Güner.

"It's five past twelve here."

80 to 100 people had fought the night before, what exactly triggered it has not yet been finally clarified.

According to Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU), it was a conflict between the Hells Angels biker group and a criminal Turkish-Arab clan.

A few meters away from CDU man Güner is the "Döner Pavilion" on the market square.

The owner says he doesn't know anything and hasn't seen anything, and that's what most people say when spoken to.

When people talk, they only do so without names, and the fear is evidently great.

You can't let the children out anymore, there's regular rioting here, the Lebanese have trouble with the rockers, it's about turf wars and what happened here the night before are the consequences.

It is certain that the police were at the scene around 8:40 p.m. and arrested 15 people.

The new Duisburg police chief Alexander Dierselhuis, who only took up his new position on April 1 and is considered an expert on clan crime, had broken off a business trip the previous evening and returned to Duisburg.

"There are various videos, some of which are of very good quality, so we are hopeful that we will be able to identify more than the 15 suspects," said the police chief at noon.

According to Dierselhuis, "nothing final" can be said about the motives.

“What we can confirm is that both rockers and members of the clan were involved in the altercation.

The exact cause of the dispute must be revealed by further investigations.«

Replaced the panes with plywood panels

The videos that the chief of police is talking about are circulating online or on WhatsApp.

A film begins right in the middle of the action, numerous shots can be heard, people run, scream and take cover.

Another cell phone video documents how a man is being cared for, he was apparently injured in the leg.

A third shaky film shows a larger group attacking the windows of a kebab shop that is spelled "Dönaladen".

Windows rattle, then police sirens can be heard and the attackers start running.

An injured person is said to have saved himself in the snack bar.

Where there were panes the night before, there are plywood panels the next day.

There is a bullet hole in the driver's door of a BMW in the square, which was still cordoned off by police tape this morning.

On the opposite side of the street, about 20 meters away, there is a Dixi toilet, seven bullet holes on one side.

Another 20 meters away is a furniture store, four bullet holes in a shop window, three bullets stuck in the walls, one in a bed.

»One catastrophe – like a bad movie«, says a woman.

And another woman, who is just picking up her husband from the doctor, is worried about her grandchildren: »How are they supposed to grow up here in peace and quiet?

They have to move away.” Years ago, Hamborn was a nice part of town, peaceful and quiet.

"Then the betting shops came, neighboring bars were suddenly supposed to pay protection money." What has to happen?

“The laws need to be changed and the penalties drastically increased.

Those who shot around here yesterday are not here today.

But tomorrow they will continue in the same way.«

Chief of Police Dierselhuis says: »Incidents of this kind, of this intensity, have not happened in Duisburg for a long time.

Of course that was shocking.

A shootout with at least 19 shots and four people injured.” However, he does not expect a further or even permanent escalation: “According to the current status of the investigation, there is nothing to suggest that.

Carrying violence onto the streets in this way is bad for organized crime.

That's why I'm more likely to assume that it will be rolled back."

In the marketplace, people are not so sure.

“What if this was the prelude?

What if that has consequences now?” In connection with the shots, there was another deployment of special forces in Duisburg during the night.

The SEC forcefully gains access to a house that is said to belong to an extended family.

However, the suspects had already fled and no one was found there.

Police said there were also operations in surrounding towns after the shots were fired.

"Only a few of us slept that night," said a police spokesman for "WAZ."

The authorities are now looking for witnesses who can provide information about the crime or the people involved.

For the investigators, "particularly photos or video recordings are of interest."

They could also be provided anonymously.

At 12:50 p.m., a tow truck takes away the damaged BMW and the holed-out dixi toilet, and the police tape is rolled up.

The forensics markings on the floor are a reminder of the shooting from the night before.

Next weekend there will be elections in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The issue of "internal security" has so far been sold as a success story by the ruling CDU and its Interior Minister Reul, who presents himself as a successful fighter against clan crime.

The shots on the Hamborner Altmarkt do not fit into this story at all.

For the opposition, they are a through ball.

At 2:30 p.m., the AfD’s top candidate in North Rhine-Westphalia, Markus Wagner, stands in front of the chipboard of the kebab shop and talks to a district representative, the conversation is filmed.

Wagner speaks of the "allegedly safest NRW", of an interior minister who "has nothing under control" and "residents who are left in the lurch".

In polls, his party is currently at six percent.

Reul himself said that clan crime was not a PR invention, but a huge problem that terrified people, especially in the Ruhr area.

He described the pictures from Duisburg as "shocking".

He didn't want to talk about a new dimension.

With material from dpa