German police officers were pelted with bottles to applause from a large crowd after they tried to end a brawl in central Frankfurt early Sunday, leading to clashes that ended with 39 arrests, the city’s police force said.
Frankfurt police chief Gerhard Bereswill said a small group of police tried to intervene after the brawl involving up to 30 people broke out at around 3 am in the city’s central Opernplatz square.
Participants in the fight turned on the officers and threw bottles at them, along with others standing nearby, he said.
The other 500 to 800 people in the square “began to jeer and clap when bottles hit our colleagues,” Bereswill added. Police called in reinforcements, who he said were also pelted with bottles, and then cleared the square.