By IRNA
Berlin : A mob of 10-15 teenagers attacked and injured three Greeks early Saturday morning at a gas station in Berlin’s Pankow district, news reports said.
According to police, the assailants chanted anti-foreigner slogans.
The victims, two men ages 27 and 28 as well as a 25-year-old woman received outpatient treatment at a local hospital following the attack.
Police was not able yet to provide further details on the xenophobic incident.
Germany has been the scene of vicious racial attacks in recent weeks, especially in formerly communist eastern Germany where foreigners are scapegoated for the dire economic problems.
Meanwhile, anti-racist activists have blamed the government for lacking a clear strategy to combat rampant neo-Nazism and xenophobia.
According to government statistics, the number of crimes committed by neo-Nazis have reached a new record in Germany in 2006 as officials openly admit that their efforts to combat far-right crime have failed.
Some 18,142 neo-Nazi crimes were registered in Germany last year, up from 15,900 in 2005.
The number of anti-foreigner attacks hovered at 511 in 2006, indicating a 37 percent rise from the previous year.
The latest figures were a “cause for concern”, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as saying earlier this year.
“Unfortunately, our multi-faceted efforts have not led to a lowering this kind of crime,” he added. Political observers link the dramatic rise in the number of far-right crimes to the recent success of neo-Nazi parties in key regional elections in several east German states.
Young neo-Nazis feel more and more emboldened to commit hate crimes, knowing that police won’t charge them with an offense.
Most of the suspects implicated in neo-Nazi crimes are juveniles.