Mass brawl after football training – 50 people involved attack each other

Six people were injured, some seriously, in a violent confrontation between two groups of men at a sports hall in Stade, Lower Saxony. The approximately 50 people involved, aged between 20 and 36, are said to have attacked each other with knives and batons, the police said. The trigger was an argument at football training.

The police launched a major operation in front of a school building on Friday evening, and there was talk of a so-called mass casualty incident. A total of 16 patrol cars from Stade and the districts were alerted. There was also a team of 30 riot police officers from Lüneburg.

The emergency services encountered several men on site, some of them wearing clothing covered in blood. According to the information, two vehicles with several people had already fled at the time, and the police were able to stop another car. The vehicle occupants spoke of further injuries behind a sports hall. There the officers found several men, some of whom were covered in blood.

Six ambulances and two emergency medical vehicles were on site. Since there were also reports of gunshot-like noises, the police set up a safe area on site where the injured were treated. They were later taken to hospitals.

When searching for other injured people, the emergency services only found objects that had been hit, but no more people. A short time after the altercation, some men appeared at hospitals in Stade and Buxtehude, the police said. To prevent further conflicts, several patrol cars were stationed at the hospitals.

According to the police, the outbreak of violence was triggered by an argument during a soccer training session in the sports hall. There the groups first clashed in a verbal battle. One of those involved then used pepper spray, after which the conflict moved outside.