An arson attack has been carried out on an accommodation for asylum seekers in Leipzig. Unknown perpetrators threw several incendiary devices against a house wall on Saturday night, according to the State Criminal Police Office (LKA). Security forces could have extinguished “a localized fire” very quickly, resulting in only minor damage. 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 was initially unable 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 (CDU) called it an alarm signal “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.
