VIENNA, Austria — During a mass brawl between migrants from Chechnya and Turkey in the Austrian capital a passerby was pushed into the path of an oncoming tram.
The victim, a Serbian man, was struck by a tram when one of the brawlers pushed him onto the tracks, reports Austrian paper Kronen Zeitung.
The Serbian sustained severe injuries with his legs being directly hit by the oncoming tram at the intersection of Knöllgasse and Quellenstraße in Vienna’s Favoriten district. The Favoriten district is well known for its high population of migrants from Turkey, Chechnya, and the Balkan states and is a low-income area.
The fight between the two groups of migrants was said to involve at least twenty men who attacked each other at the street corner. One Chechen attacker is also said to have been wielding a knife during the brawl.
When the police arrived the migrants immediately fled the scene leaving the Serbian national bloody and injured next to the tram that had hit him. The victim was immediately rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
At least one of the other participants in the mass brawl was also injured, and found complaining of severe neck pain by the side of the tram tracks by police.
Though the reason for the brawl is unclear, it has been claimed the Chechen men had told the Turkish men to be quiet while both groups were at an Internet cafe.
This is not the first incident where migrants have come to blows in the city. Earlier this year a fight erupted at the Prater park when over 50 Afghan youths attacked each other, leading to several people being injured. Police who responded to the incident were also attacked.
In March an Afghan migrant gang attacked a group of Chechens. The brawl involved over 50 men and led to several of the Chechens being hospitalised with knife wounds.
Neighbouring Germany has also seen a rise in mass street fights between migrants, but also more recently between migrants and locals. In the town of Bautzen, a large group of drunk migrants fought with local Germans, the incident casting further doubt in the minds of Germans over the mass migration policies of Chancellor Angela Merkel.