‘Pogrom mood’ sweeps Germany over migrants

A city mayor has warned that a “pogrom sentiment” is sweeping Germany after a Syrian migrant was attacked in a park by three men and whipped with an iron chain.

The incident took place in Wismar, in the northeast of Germany, on Wednesday night. Hours later far-right supporters began heading for Chemnitz, 300 miles to the south, to attend a demonstration.

The 20-year-old victim was walking home through a park when the three men, speaking German, stopped him and began hurling racist abuse. “Two suspects then hit the victim in the face,” a police spokesman said. “The third beat him with an iron chain about the shoulder and the ribs. That made the 20-year-old fall to the ground. Then the three attackers kicked him.”…

Analysts said the far right had chosen Chemnitz as a testing ground and that police urgently needed to quash any further violence to stop it spreading. “It can be seen as a beacon by neo-Nazis in other cities, as a model, and could lead to copycat attempts,” Michael Nattke, from the pro-democracy group Kulturbüro Sachsen, said.

Immigrants in the city spoke of their fear. “Some people in a car honked at me and shouted ‘Get out’,” Milad, 20, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, said. “It happens all the time. People say, ‘What are you doing here?’, or shout, ‘Foreigners out’, or call me a Muslim terrorist.”