A group of football hooligans attacked businesses in Leipzig, east Germany on Monday night, attacking businesses in a known left-wing area of the city.
The attacks by football hooligans who appear to be increasingly attaching themselves to the otherwise peaceful PEGIDA movement have made headlines across Europe. The hooligan rampage took place at the same time as the Leipzig branch of the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of Europe (PEGIDA) celebrated their first anniversary peacefully in another part of the city.
Two craftsmen repair the shattered windows of a clothing store in the left-wing Connewitz district / Photo by Jens Schlueter/Getty Images
“Hundreds” of anti mass-migration individuals affiliated with the ‘HOGESA’ football hooligan movement ran amok in the Connewitz district of Leipzig, smashing Kebab shops, setting cars on fire, and scrapping with police. There were 211 arrests and police reported 57 offences had been committed, reports TheLocal.de.
Other businesses were also damaged and the fire brigade had to be called after an errant firework set a building alight. British newspaper the Daily Mail reports a bus carrying left-wing counter-protesters was set alight, yet German language media reports the bus actually belonged to anti-migrant campaigners and was attacked by leftists.
The sign which has created so much controversy in Germany since the new year’s rape attacks: Rapefugees Not Welcome / Jens Schlueter/Getty Images
Concurrently to the riot the peaceful PEGIDA rally got under-way, as thousands of Germans listened to speeches and carried banners protesting the Islamisation of the western world and mass migration.
Banners praising Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister and criticising German chancellor Merkel with a photomontage that symbolises a migrant arm reaching for her genitals / Jens Schlueter/Getty Images
Breitbart London reported live from Leipzig at one of the first PEGIDA marches in the city in January last year, a march that saw violence from leftist counter-demonstrators but a peaceful and well attended march for PEGIDA. While the movement hit a number of setbacks over 2015 with the German state and mass media hounding founder Lutz Bachmann, PEGIDA continues to gain traction over Europe with new chapters being established in England, France, Spain, and the Czech Republic.
Police officers in riot gear watch protestors from the PEGIDA movemen rally in Leipzig / TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images