The Web Sri Lanka In Focus

Thursday 21 February 2008

German mob brutalises Sri Lankan man

Goslar, Germany - A man from Sri Lanka was recovering in hospital on Thursday after being attacked by a mob of Germans on a street, police said.

The 43-year-old suffered severe concussion and bruising during Wednesday night's assault in the town of Goslar, 210km south west of Berlin.

A total of 12 men were involved in the attack, punching and kicking their victim and hitting him with a walking stick. They only stopped when the man lay motionless on the ground, police said.

A police spokesperson said the motive was not immediately clear. The attackers did not appear to be right-wing skinheads, she added.

Racially motivated attacks against foreigners are not unusual in Germany, which has 6,74 million non-Germans in a population of 82 million.

Last weekend, two Vietnamese women and a Lebanese taxi driver were beaten up in Berlin.

In a case that made international headlines, a mob of Germans chased a group of Indians through the east German town of Muegeln and beat them last August.

The leader of the mob was given an eight-month jail term, another received a suspended sentence and a third was fined

Source: iol.co.za