Police trying to break up an unauthorized gathering of more than 100 people in downtown Fredrikstad were met by youth throwing stones and bottles at them. The unusual violence on Norway’s 17th of May holiday was repelled by additional patrols and a police helicopter whirring overhead.
“The patrols on duty were attacked by a large gang of youngsters and they had to defend themselves,” Stig Øvregård of the Øst Police District told state broadcaster NRK. Most of the youth were drunk and had assembled in several areas. They were described as “aggressive.”
The attack came after police arrested one of those gathered in Fredrikstad’s main square, Stortorvet. In the end around 10 youth were arrested.
There were also outbreaks of violence in Stavanger, Oslo, Bergen and Kristiansand as the 17th of May holiday waned Monday evening. Police in the Norwegian capital had to break up a large group of rowdy youth in the Frogner Park, where a brawl broke out and two people were stabbed. In Kristiansand, drunk youth threw eggs at passersby, shot off fireworks and strew trash around the streets. As many as 400 youth gathered in Stavanger, some as young as 12. Police in Bergen had to break up several fights and, as elsewhere, call on parents to take drunk teenagers home.
newsinenglish.no staff
