By IRNA
Berlin : Two Syrians, aged 24 and 19, were severely injured during a racial attack in the north German city of Braunschweig Wednesday evening, according to news reports.
The accused assailants, aged 21 and 23, shouted anti-foreigner slurs and then proceeded to beat up their victims.
The older victim was hospitalized with serious head wounds after being hit repeatedly with a stone.
The younger victim was time and again punched in the face.
The assailants were reportedly drunk at the time of the attack.
One of the suspects tried to resist arrest, slightly injuring a police officer.
The latest incident followed last month’s attack on two 21-year- old Sudanese students who were hurt in an apparent xenophobic attack in the east German city of Dresden, police and prosecutors were quoted saying.
A group of 10 to 15 attackers beat up and kicked the African victims.
The assailants yelled also racial insults against the Sudanese men.
A German man who tried to come to the rescue of the victims, was also injured in the attack.
Three of the assailants managed to run away from the scene of the crime.
The number of anti-foreigner attacks in Germany reached 511 in 2006, indicating a 37 percent rise from the previous year.
Human rights and anti-racism activists have accused the German government of trying to downplay the seriousness of the situation.
Most of the anti-foreigner attacks are mainly concentrated in economically depressed eastern Germany, which has yet to recover from the whiplash transition from communism to capitalism.
Many foreigners who live in eastern Germany, are afraid to go out on the streets in the evening.
Some 17 years after the German reunification, economic prospects are still bleak for those living in the five eastern states.