More than 100 German police were deployed to Tempelhof airport, a disused facility converted into a refugee shelter in Berlin, after a massive brawl among the refugees erupted on Sunday. The brawl, allegedly started by 20 to 30 people as lunch was being served, exploded into a fight that left a number of the center's residents injured, according to The Daily Mail.
Fights among refugees have happened in other shelters before, but Sunday's incidents were more violent than the usual, sources said. Michael Elias, the man in charge of the Tempelhof center, described how the fight broke out.
"It's the simple fact that there are a lot of young men traveling alone here. We withdrew because the situation simply exploded. It was a complete blow-out," he said.
The chaotic brawl came just hours after a similar incident happened in yet another shelter in the Berlin suburb of Spandau, where refugees hurled fire extinguishers at each other. Couches were thrown, windows were smashed and about 500 people residing in the center ended up fleeing in panic, reported the Guardian.
The two incidents in Berlin highlight the challenges faced by the country in handling the massive influx of refugees, especially since Germany has pledged to take in hundreds of thousands of migrants in response to the refugee crisis.
Due to the violent incidents, Germany's police union has called for refugees to be segregated according to religion and nationality, in order to lessen the chances of fights taking place.
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