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Up to 50 teens harass police officers in Munich train station

A group of teens and young people banded together to harass police at a train station in Munich, leading officers to evacuate part of the station at the weekend.

Published: 31 October 2016 14:40 CET

Up to 50 teens harass police officers in Munich train station

Ostbahnhof in Munich. Photo: Bundespolizei.

Between 40 to 50 young people gathered at around 1am on Sunday morning at a fast-food restaurant at the entrance of Munich’s eastern train station (Ostbahnhof) and some conflicts started to break out, police reported.

Public transport employees told police that the young people started verbally and somewhat physically fighting with one another.

When a police patrol arrived, they stopped an 18-year-old young man, who train station employees said had been the main aggressor, and started to take down his personal information. But this seemed to make the situation worse.

The rest of the 40 to 50 others became aggressive towards the police and started harassing them. The officers had to call in reinforcements to the scene and block off the entrance to the station for safety concerns, even evacuating the area.

The young people, who had arrived initially in separate groups, started to join together to shout “Fuck police” at the officers, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). A police spokesman told the newspaper that more and more often, police have observed people coming together in solidarity against police, even if they have nothing to do with what is happening.

“This can be during a ticket check and identity verification, that people interfere and say ‘don’t put up with that’,” police spokesman Simon Hegewald told the SZ.

“This is a trend that is not good for our officers.”

Police said that the young people consistently ignored their instructions. Some 20 federal police,12 state police as well as Deutsche Bahn transit security workers had to be called in to finally defuse the situation.

“The interference with official actions has unfortunately become very familiar to federal police in Munich’s train stations,” police wrote in their report.

The Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung reported that police are still investigating the incident for any crimes that were committed, and are reviewing surveillance videos.

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Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

The accusations come at a time of strained relations between Moscow and the West following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s support for Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a newly concluded government investigation found that a cyberattack targeting members of the Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

APT28 “is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia”, Baerbock told reporters during a visit to Australia.

“In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world. Russia denies being behind such actions.

The hacking attack on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party was made public last year. Hackers exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise e-mail accounts, according to Berlin.

Berlin on Friday summoned the acting charge d’affaires of the Russian embassy over the incident.

The Russian embassy in Germany said its envoy “categorically rejected the accusations that Russian state structures were involved in the given incident… as unsubstantiated and groundless”.

Arms, aerospace targeted: Berlin

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the cyber campaign was orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence service GRU and began in 2022. It also targeted German companies in the armaments and aerospace sectors, she said.

Such cyberattacks are “a threat to our democracy, national security and our free societies”, she told a joint news conference in Prague with her Czech counterpart Vit Rakusan.

“We are calling on Russia again to stop these activities,” Faeser added.

Czech government officials said some of its state institutions had also been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook in 2023.

Czech Interior Minister Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently experienced “higher dozens” of such attacks.

“The Czech Republic is a target. In the long term, it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state,” he told reporters.

EU, NATO condemnation

The German and Czech findings triggered strong condemnation from the European Union.

“The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia’s continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

The EU would “make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behaviour in cyberspace”, he added.

State institutions, agencies and entities in other member states including in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden had been targeted by APT28 in the past, the statement added.

The latest accusations come a day after NATO expressed “deep concern” over Russia’s “hybrid actions” including disinformation, sabotage and cyber interference.

The row also comes as millions of Europeans prepare to go to the polls for the European Parliament elections in June, and concerns about foreign meddling are running high.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP that “pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests”.

One of the most high-profile incidents so far blamed on Fancy Bear was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. It forced the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

In 2020, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the APT28 group over the incident.

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