A 17-year-old student and a teacher were so badly injured in a mass brawl in front of the Schmellwitz secondary school in the north of Cottbus on Monday that they had to be taken to hospital.
The teacher had tried to break up a dispute after several individuals, believed to be of a migration background and not students at the school, attacked a student.
Another person was also injured but was able to walk again after brief treatment on-site.
A video obtained by Junge Freiheit shows the outbreak of violence.
According to the police, four men, who are not students at the school themselves, came into the schoolyard at around 11:30 a.m. on Monday. There, a verbal argument initially developed with the 17-year-old, and the brawl then moved outside the school grounds.
The police said that the four suspects and the victim were German, Syrian, and Libyan nationals. In the meantime, four youths from the aggressive group, which had grown to around 30 people after a short time, had been arrested. After their personal details were recorded, they were handed back to their parents or guardians.
Not the first case at the Cottbus secondary school
The officers were unable to provide any information on the motive of the attackers. According to the current state of the investigation, however, the judiciary assumes that the attackers and the victim must have known each other beforehand because the 17-year-old was specifically approached by the group. The police estimated the main group of attackers comprised between five and seven people, while others were merely onlookers.
Incidents of this kind are increasingly more common at the Schmellwitz secondary school. According to the authorities, there were 62 reports there in 2023, most of which were due to acts of violence. The school has almost 300 students, more than 22 percent of whom are foreigners and more than a third have a migrant background.
