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German policeman seriously hurt as radical left storms AfD event

A police officer was seriously injured in Cologne when far-left activists invaded an event organized by right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD), authorities said.

German policeman seriously hurt as radical left storms AfD event
A German police sign photographed in December 2018 in Frankfurt. Photo: DPA

The anti-migrant party had organized “an open citizen dialogue” at a museum building on Cäcilienstraße, with police at hand for security.

But several dozen demonstrators “stormed the podium, chanting slogans and unrolling banners”.

“Due to the massive disturbance of the gathering, the people were led off the podium by police officers,” said police in a statement.

“But there was resistance,” they added.

“A police officer was pushed from the podium, fell and suffered serious injuries.”

The officer was hospitalized, according to the statement which did not specify the nature of his injuries.

No one was arrested but police took down the identities of 40 people who will be prosecuted for allegedly violating the law on assemblies as well as for putting up resistance against police officers.

Far-left and radical right activists often clash in Germany.

Among the most serious rampages by far-left militants took place during the G20 summit in 2017 in Hamburg.

The far-right has also shocked Germany with xenophobic riots in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

Member comments

  1. Referring to a right wing political party as “radical right” is a little subjective. Especially when the article talks about how the “far-left” was the one who injured the police officer. The right, who peacefully assembled, are radical, yet the party who injured the officer and disturbed an “open citizen dialogue” is just labeled “far left.” Be better.

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POLICE

Denmark convicts man over bomb joke at airport

A Danish court on Thursday gave a two-month suspended prison sentence to a 31-year-old Swede for making a joke about a bomb at Copenhagen's airport this summer.

Denmark convicts man over bomb joke at airport

In late July, Pontus Wiklund, a handball coach who was accompanying his team to an international competition, said when asked by an airport agent that
a bag of balls he was checking in contained a bomb.

“We think you must have realised that it is more than likely that if you say the word ‘bomb’ in response to what you have in your bag, it will be perceived as a threat,” the judge told Wiklund, according to broadcaster TV2, which was present at the hearing.

The airport terminal was temporarily evacuated, and the coach arrested. He later apologised on his club’s website.

“I completely lost my judgement for a short time and made a joke about something you really shouldn’t joke about, especially in that place,” he said in a statement.

According to the public prosecutor, the fact that Wiklund was joking, as his lawyer noted, did not constitute a mitigating circumstance.

“This is not something we regard with humour in the Danish legal system,” prosecutor Christian Brynning Petersen told the court.

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