Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

VIOLENCE

Man stabbed in Stockholm gang brawl

A man was left nursing stab wounds to the neck after a mass brawl involving some 20 men belonging to rival biker gangs in central Stockholm on Tuesday.

Published: 7 September 2011 08:23 CEST

Another man is also reported to have required treatment after the brawl on the open street outside a bar on Södermalm in central Stockholm.

According to witness reports some 15 members of the Red and White Crew, a supporter club of the Hells Angels, stormed the El Cocodrilo restaurant on Ringvägen.

Armed with knives, tear gas and firearms the group attacked a rival gang, reported by the police to be either Outlaws or Bandidos.

“I heard screaming and shouting, then I saw a mob run in and out from the restaurant. Then they came out carrying a half-naked guy, who fell to the ground and who they continued to assault,” an eye witness told the TT news agency.

The witness watched as the man was beaten bloody outside the restaurant before the police managed to break up the fight.

There are reports of shots being fired inside the restaurant, but these are denied by the police.

“They waved a weapon, but no one has been shot,” said Stefan Nordemark at Stockholm police.

The police detained a person during the night, with a second man subject to a warrant for his arrest.

“We have conducted a number of raids, including a club premises. We are working on the case and it feels as if we have a good situation.”

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLICE

French government to rewrite controversial Article 24 of security bill

French MPs will completely rewrite the contentious Article 24 of the security bill that restricts the publication of images of police, which caused thousands to take to the streets in protest across France this weekend.

Published: 30 November 2020 16:20 CET
French government to rewrite controversial Article 24 of security bill
Christophe Castaner, former French interior minister and current parliamentary president of the ruling party La République en Marche, speaks to journalists on November 30th. Photo: AFP

“We propose a complete rewriting of Article 24,” said Christophe Castaner, Parliamentary President of the ruling party La République en Marche and former interior minister.

Castaner, who held a press conference on Monday afternoon after President Emmanuel Macron summoned ministers to an emergency summit, said the government had “taken note” of the public opinion’s “incomprehension” of the text in question.

READ ALSO Aujourd'hui: What's happening in France on Monday 

France's controversial security law proposal – which was passed in the lower house of parliament last week but still faces legislative hurdles – has caused uproar across the country and saw hundreds of thousands protesters take to the streets in several French cities on Saturday.

Article 24, the most controversial part of the text, would criminalise publishing (either by journalists or on social media) images of on-duty police, if there is manifest intent to harm their “physical or psychological integrity”.

Journalists groups and international NGOs say the vague wording of the Article is open to abuse.

“The misunderstandings raised by Article 24 require that we take the time to discuss this point again,” Castaner said, as he refuted critics' claims that the bill would limit press freedom by making it more difficult to film police.

“As legislators, we must be the guarantors of fundamental rights and freedoms, first and foremost, of course, freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” Castaner said.

“Article 24 is pursuing two objectives, one of them being to better protect police officers. . .The other objective of article 24 is to preserve press freedom, whether it concerns journalists. . . or citizens.”

But several rights organisations have called for the government to withdraw the article in question, a call that gained strength after a French media published a video of three police officers beating up a music producer in Paris last week. This came shortly after police violently cleared a migrant camp set up in protest at Place de la République, in the heart of Paris.

Macron called cabinet ministers and parliamentary leaders to a crisis meeting on Monday to rapidly produce “suggestions to re-establish confidence” between the police and the population.

The rewriting will be done by the three majority groups in the French parliament – LREM, MoDem and Agir.

SHOW COMMENTS