Two people were stabbed prior to a mass brawl in the Belgian city of Genk on Christmas day that saw a mob of around 40 young migrants from Afghanistan and Turkey clash.
The clash took place on Saturday evening at around 8 pm near the city’s main train station, where the first stabbing took place and saw an 18-year-old injured. The group of Afghans are believed to have come from the Lanaken asylum centre, while the Turks are said to be local residents of the city.
Another 18-year-old was the second person to be stabbed in the centre of the city along Klokstraat street and was rushed to a local hospital with serious injuries but is said to no longer be in critical condition as of Sunday, Sudinfo reports.
The group of around 40 youths were followed by local police as they went to the Kolderbos area of the city, and police arrested 19 in connection with the violence, all aged between 15 and 25.
The migrants living at the asylum centre were taken to three separate police stations for questioning and all but one, a 17-year-old, were later released after being identified and questioned. The Limburg Public Prosecutor’s Office is said to be considering charges for the 17-year-old.
Inter-ethnic mass brawls between migrants are not an uncommon occurrence in parts of Europe in recent years.
Last year in neighbouring France, the city of Dijon saw multiple days of clashes between Chechen migrants and North Africans after an attack on a Chechen teen.
France was forced to call in a hundred gendarmes and CRS riot police officers, as well as bring in members of the elite RAID police unit in order to restore order after at least six people had been wounded in violence over the span of several days.
Earlier this year in Italy, locals in the city of Ventimiglia along the French border stated that inter-ethnic violence between different nationalities of migrants had become a near-daily occurrence as migrants arrive in the city in the hopes of crossing the border to France.