By DPA
Mainz (Germany) : A 29-year-old German was ordered to be kept in detention Saturday, following a racist attack on two foreigners which put a Sudanese man in hospital.
The unnamed man was arrested Friday along with an accomplice, aged 26, who was freed on police bail.
They are accused of beating up the Sudanese and an Egyptian man, following a wine festival near the town of Mainz in western Germany.
The foreigners were set upon Aug 15 in the village of Guntersblum, the same day that a group of Germans pursued and injured eight Indians in the eastern town of Muegeln.
The Sudanese, aged 26, was hit over the head with a wine bottle and spent several days in hospital before being discharged. The 39-year-old Egyptian received cuts to the hand.
Initial reports linked the men who carried out the attack to the right-wing scene.
One of the suspects was heard to say, “Let’s flatten the niggers”, before the trio pounced on their victims, a justice department spokesman said in Mainz.
Police did not immediately disclose details of the attack to avoid hampering their investigations, the spokesman said.
Prime Minister Kurt Beck of the state of Rhineland Palatinate, where the incident took place, condemned the attack as “loathsome” and “cowardly”.
Police investigating the attack on the Indians said Friday they had identified two more of the suspected assailants, bringing the number to four.
Eight Indians were injured when a mob of about 50 Germans chanting racist slogans hounded them across the market square in Muegeln after a town festival, forcing them to seek shelter in a pizzeria.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack as “extremely grim and shameful” and a government spokesman said it was harmful to Germany’s image abroad.