German held after racist attack on Syrian caught on video

BERLIN – A 39-year-old German man has been arrested in connection with a racist attack on a teenage refugee in the eastern city of Erfurt that was captured on video, officials said Monday.

The governor of Thuringia state, where Erfurt is located, called the attack that took place late Friday in one of the city’s trams “simply disgusting.”

“The perpetrator has been caught,” the governor, Bodo Ramelow, wrote on Twitter. “Such a cowardly person, strong and aggressive against someone who was defenceless.”

A video circulating on social media shows a man standing over the seated victim, repeatedly insulting and spitting at him, and then kicking him in the face.

Erfurt police said the 17-year-old victim from Syria, suffered minor injuries in the attack, which followed a verbal argument.

Witnesses on the tram alerted officers, who were able to identify the suspect based on the video as he was already known to police.

Anti-racism groups say there were 102 cases of far-right and antisemitic violence in Thuringia last year.

The incident happened in the same week that a Black customer was ejected from a Berlin supermarket after complaining about another shopper’s racist slur. Supermarket chain Aldi apologized for the incident and said a member of staff was fired.