Carnival: Trier police attacked by nightclub revelers

Only the western German city of Trier's police reported serious disturbances overnight on Thursday amid the first major day of revelry as part of Germany's week of carnival (or Karneval, or Fasching, as it's known in the predominantly Catholic south of Germany) festivities. 

Police said on Friday morning that five officers were injured when "roughly 40 people, some of them exceedingly violent" attacked officers outside a nightclub with makeshift weapons including "iron bars, broomsticks, shovels and glass bottles." 

"I have not experienced such an outbreak of violence against police officers during my time as the director of Trier's police precinct," Christian Hamm said. "A violent group of people genuinely ganged up in order to attack police purely on the basis of their presence there." 

What happened exactly? 

Four male officers and one female officer required medical attention in hospital after the clash. 

"They were subsequently discharged from the clinics after outpatient treatment and finished their shifts," police said in a press release. 

Police were originally responding to a physical altercation inside the nightclub. 

"Because of the heated atmosphere and the large and sometimes drunken number of guests at the scene, multiple police vehicles dispatched," police said. "During the investigations some of the assembled people began to attack the officers present. The officers were able to fend off the attackers only with massive effort and pepper spray." 

Police said that while this took place, a larger group of around 40 people had gathered together, some of them arming themselves with whatever came to hand, and they then attacked. 

"For the officers, who were outnumbered, a sufficiently life-threatening situation developed that one of them fired two warning shots into the air," police said. 

After this, the situation was said to have calmed. Police said two local men, aged 21 and 42, were arrested, and that multiple other suspects fled the scene. 

Trier police on Friday appealed to the public and potential witnesses for more information, saying that through the night its officers continued investigating multiple cases of suspected bodily harm, defying police instructions, severe breach of the peace and the attempted freeing of people from police custody.

Cologne driver under the influence

Trier's report was the only one of its kind to emerge on Friday morning, with other police notifications more banal by comparison. 

Police in Cologne, one of the largest centers of Carnival festivities nationwide, did report the arrest of one man who was driving a rental car and was believed to be under the influence of narcotics. 

The 29-year-old caused several road traffic accidents, including rear-ending a BMW, then hitting a tree and fleeing the scene. 

He then attempted to flee police as they set off in pursuit after a squad car spied him jumping a red light. He went on to drive on a cycle path and try to squeeze through a narrow gap next to an ambulance in his bid to escape. But shortly before 4 p.m. he crashed into a traffic sign and sustained light injuries. He was ordered to submit to a blood test to confirm police's suspicions of narcotics use. 

Cologne's police however had otherwise reported a largely peaceful day's festivities.

Authorities were somewhat concerned as the major daytime street festival, where drinking tends to start in earnest at around 11 a.m., was the first to take place with almost no COVID-related restrictions on the events. 

Even by early afternoon, Cologne police had reported cases of young people needing medical attention after drinking too heavily. And they also warned women to be wary of sexual predators, to ensure they had a safe route home, and not to leave their drinks unattended or to drink from somebody else's glass. 

Nazi salute to police in Bavaria

Another young man in the small Bavarian town of Spalt, south of Nuremberg, faced criminal police investigations on Friday after making a Nazi salute gesture to police officers at a Fasching event. 

The Nazi salute is outlawed in Germany, as are several other phrases and symbols tied to Adolf Hitler's regime. 

The 24-year-old tried to flee the scene but was apprehended. 

Police in the southwestern university city of Freiburg described the night as "for the most part calm and peaceful." They said officers had to order four people to go home early, and that they charged two who refused. They also said one man, who had already demonstrated violence towards other members of the public, had to be physically overpowered and arrested as he resisted an identity check.

For the most committed German revelers, carnival festivities run all week, until the beginning of the Christian period of Lent next Wednesday.

Thursday was the first major night of the event. It's also arguably one of the bigger nights of partying, probably rivaled (or indeed eclipsed) only by Rose Monday, coming up on February 20.

With the exception of Trier, though, police reported relatively trouble-free nights. A pair of violent incidents on public transport involving people with no valid ticket were reported, the most serious one in Dortmund at a time of day that could coincide with carnival drinking, but police did not say whether the man who fired pepper spray at a ticket controller and passengers in a bid to escape was suspected of being under the influence. 

Mainz police also reported an isolated incident of a woman believed to be under the influence of alcohol and "a white powdery substance" kicking a police officer in the groin and swearing at him in the early hours of Friday morning. Police had been alerted to her making a lot of noise in the main train station and were responding. Again the incident was not explicitly linked to carnival by law enforcement though. 

Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher

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