The commemorative ceremonies for the Rostock-Lichtenhagen pogrom have hardly ended when an attack on an accommodation for asylum seekers in Leipzig makes the headlines. Unknown persons throw incendiary devices against the building during the night. Saxony’s Interior Minister speaks of an alarm signal.
An arson attack has been carried out on a refugee accommodation in Leipzig. Unknown perpetrators threw several incendiary devices against a house wall during the night, as reported by the State Criminal Police Office (LKA). Security forces could have put out “a local fire” very quickly, so that only minor damage was caused. Nobody got hurt. The Saxon Ministry of the Interior announced increased security for all asylum seeker accommodations.
The attack happened at the end of a week in which the racist riots in Rostock-Lichtenhagen 30 years ago were widely remembered. In August 1992, to the applause of thousands of onlookers, local residents and neo-Nazis attacked the central reception center for asylum seekers and a dormitory for Vietnamese workers and partly set them on fire.
The Saxon LKA has not yet been able to provide any information about the perpetrators in Leipzig. Investigators asked for witnesses. A political background cannot be ruled out. The “Task Force Violence” in the State Criminal Police Office took over the investigation. The suspicion was attempted particularly serious arson.
Interior Minister Armin Schuster called it a warning sign “that such inhuman crimes are not a thing of the past.” It is also thanks to the prudent security forces at the accommodation that no one was harmed and only minor property damage was caused, the CDU politician explained in a tweet. The shared accommodation is located in a prefabricated building in the Lausen-Grünau district. According to the city of Leipzig, it has 225 places.