Young men are said to have attacked two Ghanaian girls in Grevesmühlen. An eight-year-old girl and her father were injured and authorities are investigating.
The authorities are investigating disorderly conduct, serious bodily injury, sedition and insults. Photo: Marcus Brandt/dpa
GREVE MILLS dpa | An allegedly racist attack by a group of youths against two Ghanaian girls in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has caused horror. According to police reports on Saturday, an eight-year-old girl and her father were slightly injured in the incident in Grevesmühlen. Both were taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
According to the investigators' first conclusions, the eight-year-old girl and her ten-year-old sister were attacked on Friday afternoon around 7:30 p.m. by a group of about 20 young people and teenagers. It is said that the attackers, among other things, kicked the minor in the face. According to the police, when the children's parents arrived, there was also an argument with them.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Interior Minister Christian Pegel strongly condemned the attack. “People, especially children, are not attacked, and even less so for racist reasons,” said the SPD politician. There is no place for racism in society.
As a spokesperson for the police operations control center reported to the German Press Agency on Saturday, the emergency services established personal data after the incident. Among the known names are also possible suspects. Researchers would now investigate this.
Mayor speaks of “bottomless hatred”
When police arrived at the scene on Friday night, one person in the group was said to have racially abused the victims as they were leaving. Police said up to eight people from the group were involved in the attack. He is investigating disorderly conduct, serious bodily harm, sedition and insults. Officers are looking for witnesses to the incident.
The mayor of Grevesmühlen, Lars Prahler, told broadcaster NDR 1 Radio MV: “This racially motivated act leaves me dumbfounded. “This shows bottomless hatred and uninhibited inhumanity and cannot be excused.” It is also no excuse that they are young people. Prahler expressed his deepest condolences to the girls' family and said he would contact them as soon as possible.
Despite the incident, the city's local festival is scheduled to be held on Saturday. “Because we don't want to allow actions like this by marginalized groups to dictate how we want to live together as an urban society,” Prahler said.
“I think we live in very difficult times, in which there are complex problems on the street and those who use boring slogans and simple solutions have an easy time as people hunters,” Prahler said. It is time for the majority of society, which refuses to fall into racist images of humanity, to make their voices heard and set an example.