Scenes of smashed windows in the city are reminiscent of the anti-Semitic Kristallnacht attacks in 1938


The mayor of a German city has spoken of 'terror on the streets' of his city after far-right thugs ran riot in scenes reminiscent of the anti-Semitic Kristallnacht attacks in 1938.

Burkhard Jung, mayor of Leipzig, has condemned the 'naked violence that took place' after doner kebab fast food restaurants were destroyed, cars were set ablaze and shop windows were smashed by around 250 hooligans of LEGIDA - the local branch of PEGIDA, an anti-migrant, anti-EU organization - on Monday night.

The rampage in Leipzig evoked memories of the wave of violence against Jews that erupted across Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on November 9, 1938.

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Riots: Fast food restaurants were destroyed, cars were set ablaze and shop windows were smashed in the German town of Leipzig

Scenes of smashed windows are reminiscent of the anti-Semitic Kristallnacht attacks in Nazi Germany and parts of Austria in 1938

Hundreds of anti-refugee rioters went on the rampage in Leipzig after a demonstration where they called for asylum seekers to be deported

Inside one of the doner kebab grills after some 250 masked hooligans attacked takeaway restaurants in Leipzig on Monday evening

On Monday, hundreds of anti-refugee rioters caused chaos in Leipzig after a demonstration where they called for asylum seekers to be deported and their nation's borders closed.

The right-wingers broke away from a largely peaceful march in the eastern city to trash the suburb of Connewitz.

At one point the demonstrators, who threw fireworks at police, attempted to build a barricade in a main street with signs and torn up paving stones before they were dispersed.

Firemen had to tackle a blaze in the attic of one building set alight by a wayward rocket fired by the rioters. A bus carrying leftist pro-asylum demonstrators was also attacked and seriously damaged.

'It was naked violence that took place here, nothing more,' Jung said. 'That has been established and there must be consequences.'

Police said they have identified and arrested 211 of the crowd of right-wing hooligans, many of them with criminal records for violence.

'This was a serious breach of the peace,' said a police spokesman, confirming that several police officers were injured in the clashes triggered by simmering anger over the New Year's Eve mass sex attacks against women in Cologne and several other German cities.

A man walks past the shattered windows of a launderette the day after anti-migrant rioters rocked the Germany town of Leipzig

Windows at this bar were shattered when hundreds of anti-refugee rioters went on the rampage in Leipzig on Monday night

Doner kebab fast food stalls were destroyed, cars set ablaze and shop windows smashed by around 250 hooligans of LEGIDA

KRISTALLNACHT: THE NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS On November 9. 1938, the Nazis began their campaign to destroy the Jewish race. The authorities watched on as Hitler's SA paramilitary force and non-Jewish civilians targeted Jewish businesses and homes. 91 Jews were killed in the attacks in Germany and Austria and more than 30,000 were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. A pedestrian looks at the wreckage of a Jewish shop in Berlin Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were ransacked and more than 1,000 synagogues were burned down, while thousands of Jewish businesses were destroyed. Historians have long pointed to the two-day campaign of terror as the start of Hitler's Final Solution - the dictator's comprehensive plan to exterminate the entire Jewish population in Nazi occupied Europe. The name of the wave of violence refers to the shards of glass left strewn across cities in the aftermath of the bloody pogroms. Advertisement

'Rape Refugees stay away' was one of the banners carried during the march, the wording above a silhouette of women running from knife-wielding attackers, one of whom resembled a caricature from Aladdin.

When daylight broke in Leipzig, scenes were similar to those that followed Kristallnacht - the name referring to the shards of glass left strewn across cities in the aftermath of the bloody pogroms.

In Leipzig, hundreds of families were persecuted and more than 500 men were taken to Buchenwald concentration camp.

A Kristallnacht memorial in the city is now cleaned each year to ‘make the Nazi crimes visible’ across Europe.

The anniversary of the night in November was due to coincide with a weekly demonstration by LEGIDA and the right-wing movement had planned to walk past the site of a synagogue that was burned to the ground during Kristallnacht.

However, the city ruled that until the end of the year, the LEGIDA could not march through the city, only rally.

Yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said; 'Now all of a sudden we are facing the challenge that refugees are coming to Europe and we are vulnerable, as we see, because we do not yet have the order, the control, that we would like to have.'

She also said the euro was 'directly linked' to freedom of movement in Europe, adding: 'Nobody should act as though you can have a common currency without being able to cross borders reasonably easily.'

Merkel said that if countries did not allow their borders to be crossed without much difficulty, the European single market would 'suffer acutely' - meaning that Germany, at the centre of the European Union and its largest economy, should fight to defend freedom of movement.

And tonight, Germany feared a new march of the far right following the riots in Leipzig, which added to long-held concerns from German intelligence services that the far right groups are organising into terrorist cell structures.

The EU has struggled to cope with a tide of refugees from war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, most of whom have landed in Greece or Italy before heading for wealthier northern EU states.

Germany has taken in the bulk of them, more than a million last year alone.

Some EU countries have re-established border controls within the passport-free Schengen zone, where they had been abolished, while efforts to share out the asylum-seekers across EU member states have floundered.

Merkel said that, to preserve the Schengen zone within the EU, it was necessary to make the bloc's external borders more secure.

Police forces patrol a street in Leipzig after the peaceful protest turned nasty in Leipzig

A poster of German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and one of the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban (left), which reads 'Thank you', is held aloft by protestors from the PEGIDA movement in Leipzig

At one point the demonstrators, who threw fireworks at police, attempted to build a barricade in a main street with signs and torn up paving stones before they were dispersed

Around 250 hooligans from LEGIDA - the local branch of PEGIDA, the anti-migrant, anti-EU organization, targeted restaurants and takeaways last night after a peaceful demonstration turned nasty

Hundreds of members of LEGIDA carried placards calling for the closure of Germany's borders and the deportation of migrants

Members of LEGIDA hold a sit-in after being penned in by German police in the city of Leipzig

Many of the placard criticised Chancellor Angela Merkel and blamed migrants for the New Year's Eve attacks

The violence in Leipzig followed on from weekend attacks in Cologne by a vigiliante mob which used the social networking site Facebook to marshall young men - rockers, bodybuilders and club bouncers - to go on a 'manhunt' for immigrants.

Two Pakistani men were hospitalized and a third Syrian man was lightly injured before a stiff police presence on the streets thwarted further attacks.

It is unclear what their condition is although the police are looking to press charges of 'serious bodily harm' against their attackers who kicked, beat and abused them verbally.

The Express said the Facebook vigilante groups had promised an 'orderly clean up' of the old town centre in their 'manhunt.'

Police confirmed one Syrian man was also hurt in an attack on Sunday, which took place just 20 minutes after the first, but is believed to have been carried out by a separate group of five men.

German police say the number of criminal complaints filed after the events on New Year's Eve in Cologne has risen to 516 - 40 per cent relating to allegations of sexual assault.

The violence in Leipzig followed on from weekend attacks in Cologne by a vigiliante mob which used the social networking site Facebook to marshall young men to go on a 'manhunt' for immigrants

The peaceful demonstration turned into a violent attack on local properties, thought to belong to alleged migrants, in Leipzig

Protestors from the PEGIDA movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident) attend a rally in Leipzig

A first aid team was on standby at the demonstration where PEGIDA supporters gathered to mark the first year of its local chapter LEGIDA in Cologne

Lutz Bachmann,leader of the PEGIDA movement speaks to protestors during a rally in Leipzig

Police officers dressed in riot gear standby as the large gathering descended into violence late into the night

Germany's FBI, the Federal Criminal Office, said it had information that the surrounding and sexual molestation of women was a 'familiar phenomenon in some Arab countries.' Now it is liaising with police in all 16 states of Germany to formulate a strategy on how to combat it in future on German streets.

The minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, the German state where Cologne is located, admitted that people of foreign descent were responsible for virtually all of the violence on New Year's Eve in the city.

'Based on testimony from witnesses, the report from the Cologne police and descriptions by the federal police, it looks as if people with a migration background were almost exclusively responsible for the criminal acts,' Ralf Jaeger, interior minister from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia told a special commission on the Cologne violence.

'All signs point to these being north Africans and people from the Arab world,' he added. 'Based on what we know now from the investigation, asylum seekers who arrived in the past year are among the suspects.'

RISE IN MIGRANTS LEAVING GERMANY FOLLOWING COLOGNE SEX ATTACKS Germany has started sending a growing number of migrants back to Austria since the New Year's Eve sex attacks in Cologne shocked the country. Some of the departing migrants said they did not want asylum in Germany after the backlash on migrants following the attacks. Ten of the 19 men suspected of carrying out the attacks in Cologne are believed to be asylum seekers leading to anti-migrant demonstrations in Germany. Most of the migrants leaving Germany appear to be from Afghanistan and North Africa rather than from Syria, who are normally accepted for asylum. 'The daily number of migrants being turned back has risen from 60 in December to 200 since the start of the year, David Furtner, police spokesman in Upper Austria state, told AFP. Many of the departing migrants are wanting to go to Scandinavia. However entering countries like Sweden has become harder for migrants since Denmark changed its border policy. Germany's decision to send migrants back to Austria comes as the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann pledged to take tougher action at its borders to turn away 'economic migrants' in order to reduce overall immigration. Around 90,000 of those sought asylum in Austria - a country of 8.5 million people - in 2015, around three times more than the previous year, ORF radio said, citing Interior Ministry statistics. 'One must transit to a Plan B. That means to intensify policies together with Germany to send back economic migrants and decrease overall numbers,' Social Democrat Faymann said in an interview with Austrian newspaper Krone published on Tuesday. He said Austria needed to explore the legal framework for differentiating between those fleeing war and those who migrate for economic reasons. 'One thing is certain in any case: shortly, we will be more active at our borders than today. The Germans will also do more,' Faymann said. Faymann has come under pressure from his conservative coalition partners and the far-right Freedom Party, which in recent opinion polls won the support of around a third of those surveyed. Last month, Faymann said Austria should step up deportations of people who do not qualify for asylum. Advertisement

A young migrant waits with his possession at a temporary camp after German officials sent him back to Austria

Some of the departing migrants said they did not want asylum in Germany after the backlash on migrants following the attacks

A young mother holds on to her son as she prepares to leave Germany and re-enter Austria in the hope of finding asylum

Several migrants prepare to pack their bags into the boot of a coach and head back to neighbouring Austria

Around 90,000 migrants sought asylum in Austria last year, nearly three times more than the previous year, ORF radio said

Cologne has a significant first and second generation immigrant population and racial tension has heightened in the wake of New Years Eve.

The city, which has a population of just over one million, has more than 120,000 practicing Muslim residents and the largest Jewish communities in Germany. Just over 5.5 per cent are born in Turkey.

Over the past week, the police presence in the city has been heightened, but many called the efforts 'too little too late', questioning why officers had not been able to stop the attacks.

On Monday, a regional parliamentary commission in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, whose largest city is Cologne, will question police and others about the events on New Year's Eve.

The attacks on women in Cologne have also sparked a debate about tougher rules for migrants who break the law, faster deportation procedures and increased security measures such as more video surveillance in public areas and more police.

Germany's FBI, the Federal Criminal Office, said it had information that the surrounding and sexual molestation of women was a 'familiar phenomenon in some Arab countries'

Two Pakistani nationals were admitted to hospital after six men were attacked by a mob of 20 people near Cologne's main train station(pictured)

A heavy police presence, with water canon at the ready, kept watch over the crowd at yesterday's protest march by the far-right movement

Women shout slogans and hold up a placard that reads 'Against Sexism - Against Racism' as they march through the main railways station of Cologne last week following the sex attacks and robberies on New Year's Eve