Fifty school-leavers in Germany had to be restrained by police on Thursday night after they stormed a police station in an attempt to free a friend.

The 15-year-old boy had been placed in a cell after he was aggressive towards police who arrested him after an end-of-term party in the Bavarian lakeside town of Starnberg turned violent. The teenager had allegedly previously asked a security guard for drugs and had gone on the rampage.

The young people threw glass bottles and stones at the police station, breaking a cell window, during their attempt to free their friend.

One school-leaver kicked an officer, narrowly missing his head, according to a police spokesman. Others tried to break down the door of the police station. The pupils apologised to the police in a letter on Friday, stating: “The escalation ... was never our aim.”

The incident made headlines across Germany, with national media emphasising surprise that it had happened in a town that is home to some of Germany’s richest citizens. Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said: “The happenings in Starnberg are absolutely out of the question. Parties and alcohol are no excuses for such behaviour.”

Herrmann urged the pupils involved to do work experience at the local police station “to recognise what it means (for the police) on a 24-hour basis to look reality in the face and deploy security and order for our benefit”.

