Afghan boy shot with plastic round in Chemnitz
July 3, 2020
A 10-year-old Afghan boy was shot with a plastic bullet likely from a compressed air gun in the German city of Chemnitz, police said on Friday.
Police said they were investigating a possible "xenophobic motive" in the incident and the case has now been taken over by a special branch of the police for politically motivated crimes.
Police have not yet identified a suspect and have called for witnesses.
The boy was shot at on Wednesday in the Sonnenberg neighborhood and was hit in the thigh. He was left with a bleeding wound and was treated by paramedics on the scene.
Police later found a plastic bullet that they said was likely fired from a compressed air gun.
Read more: Kristallnacht anniversary: Chemnitz riots show how pogroms start
Far-right protests
The eastern German city was the sight of major far-right protests where refugees and minorities were chased and attacked in the streets in 2018.
In 2018, 8,000 people turned up for a far-right protest after two 23-year-old asylum seekers from Iraq and Syria stabbed a man to death in the city.
A day after the killing, a city street festival turned sour with some people filmed chasing down migrants. It then led to a week of far-right protests, attended by thousands of neo-Nazi and prominent far-right politicians from across the country. Some of the protests also saw clashes break out between far-right demonstrators and Antifa counterprotesters.
Chemnitz became synonymous with far-right violence and spawned a wave of inclusivity and tolerance protests, under the banner of "#WirSindMehr" (We are more).
aw/rs (AFP, dpa)