Eleven “youths” have been arrested after a riot broke out at a school in Sweden that saw both police and TV journalists attacked with rocks by an angry mob.
The riot occurred at the Alléskolan school in the town of Hallsberg on Monday afternoon. According to police, glass bottles and rocks were thrown at them, as well as at journalists. Officers say they have arrested 11 young men in connection with the riots and said they have no idea what started the conflict which escalated rapidly, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
The SVT team, headed by reporter Anders Nord, were on the scene for the riot and were also attacked by the young men. Mr. Nord said that while police had arrested some of the youths, “another group of masked youths, a little further away, shouted at police and threw stones. The scene commander then gave the order to police to put on helmets and approached the youth, who then ran from the scene.”
In total, police say around 30 individuals participated in the riot, though there were no reports of any serious injuries on the scene. The youths aren’t thought to be students at the school, but outsiders according to policeman Mats Öhman. “They came to the school from what I understand was a continuation of a fight that was from last Friday,” he said.
Öhman described how the events unfolded saying: “It was pretty uncomfortable. It happened before we got on our helmets and the attack came as a bolt from the blue. Had anyone got hit in the head it would have been bad.”
The fight that took place on Friday, which authorities say led to the Monday riot, is also mentioned on the Swedish police website with the police describing it as “messy” and saying that two factions of young men fought with each other. Police did not identify the origins of the suspects involved on Friday or Monday, through video footage obtained by Swedish paper Nerikes Allehanda shows men who look to be of a foreign background.
Attacks on police in Sweden have become increasingly more common and along with other issues have led to many officers quitting the force entirely. The main areas of danger for police have been the 55 or so No Go Zones across the country which are mostly populated by migrants. Even ambulance drivers have requested military-style helmets and other equipment to protect themselves from attack.
Journalists in Sweden have also been attacked by “youths” in the last year. Most recently, a photographer for Swedish Newspaper Dagens Nyheter was attacked during the recent riots in the no go area of Rinkeby and last year an Australian TV crew was attacked in the same area.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart.com