Shortly before 4 p.m., the audience attack each other wildly, chasing each other across the pitch. Suddenly, one man pulls out a knife, injures another, then even fires a shot. Brutal brawl between clans at the district sports ground in the Altenessen district of Essen.
The teams ‘AL-ARZ Libanon’ and ‘RuWa Dellwig’ had previously competed against each other in Essen’s district league C in the sunshine. In the second half, there was suddenly a loud argument amongst the crowd, and then a riot broke out between at least 60 men.
Many residents called the emergency services and the police launched a large-scale operation. All available patrol cars raced to Altenessen, a hundred police officers were also withdrawn from the third division match in Duisburg and 150 police officers surrounded the sports ground.
The officers feared that the weapons could also be used against them. Once the situation was under control, the paramedics, who had also been alerted, were able to attend to two injured men. One of them had a stab wound.
No other victims were discovered at the district training ground. An officer: ‘There may have been other injured people, but they left before the police arrived.’
All the men suspected of the offence are being held at the sports ground. They are said to belong to two different extended families. Nobody wants to comment on why the fight broke out. One by one, the 150 possible suspects are taken out of the fenced-in area, have to identify themselves and are searched for weapons.
More Lebanese clan members continue to arrive at the scene during the police operation. Several officers keep an eye on them and the tension between the groups of men remains high. The operation is expected to continue until late in the evening.
Police spokesman Matthias Werk told the newspaper BILD: ‘At 3.55 p.m., we received a lot of emergency calls about the altercation on the sports field, we immediately went to the scene with very strong forces and were able to calm the incident. We recovered a bullet casing, which is now being analysed. As we assume that the altercation had clan connections, our clan investigators are also on the scene.’
Messer-Attacke in Essen: Riesige Clan-Schlägerei auf Fußballplatz! | Regional | BILD.de