Police are investigating after an asylum seeker allegedly held a knife to the throat of a local resident in a violent dispute in southern Germany on Saturday night.

The incident occurred in the town of Prien am Chiemsee in southern Bavaria, near the border with Austria, according to chiemgau24.com.

An argument broke out near the town’s railway station between two rival groups around 11:30pm, involving both locals and migrants. During the confrontation a migrant pulled a knife and held it to the throat of one of the locals before another local stepped in and hit the migrant.

This past weekend there have also been reports of brawl at a migrant centre in Saxony involving some 100 asylum seekers. Police said around 40 Afghans and 50 to 60 people of other nationalities were involved, threatening one another with metal bars.

They added there was initially little they could do due to the language barrier, and it took a while to find someone who could explain what happened.

MDR says the fight started due to “religious conflicts” after scheduled prayer times overran, with Syrian migrants complaining about “loud” Afghan prayers.

An Afghan asylum seeker has now been identified as the main culprit and taking into custody after receiving medical treatment.

These incidents are the latest in a series of internecine fights among migrants in Germany. Earlier this month, three Afghans were seriously injured in a fight with a gang of Syrians after exchanging a series of insults in a German language class.

Last month, one man was killed in another fight at an asylum centre in Wolfsburg. Police were called to the scene after gunshots were heard, and found two men seriously injured. Both were taken to hospital where one later died. No weapons were found.

The chief of the German police union has admitted that the scale of migrant violence may be larger than the media is reporting because police are not reporting all incidents to avoid scaring the public.

“The public does not know everything,” he said.