Plea for calm as migrants held over German’s death

GERMAN officials called for calm yesterday after two Afghans were detained on suspicion of killing a German man in a fight, fuelling fears of more antiforeigner unrest after racist violence shook the city of Chemnitz.

The suspects were taken into custody after a 22-year-old man died in a dispute at a playground late on Saturday in Koethen, located – like Chemnitz – in the former Communist east.

Local police and prosecutors stressed that “the concrete circumstances of the event are not yet known”.

But the incident was expected to stoke anti-migrant tensions, coming just two weeks after the fatal stabbing of a 35-year-old German in Chemnitz, allegedly by two asylum seekers, sparked violent protests.

There are fears of a repeat of those scenes, when thousands took to the streets in protests that led to assaults on foreign-looking people, reporters and police, while some made the illegal Nazi salute. Holger Stahlknecht, the state of Saxony-anhalt’s interior minister, urged residents to “keep calm” and allow justice to take its course.