German police said Sunday they had arrested four men after a suspected far-right attack in Berlin on campaign workers for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) party that also injured two police officers.
The suspects, aged between 16 and 19, travelled to the capital on Saturday intent on "physical confrontations with 'leftists'", Berlin police and the local prosecutor's office said in a joint statement.
The group encountered the campaigners for the centre-left SPD at a bus stop in the south of Berlin, police said.
As they boarded a bus, two of the suspects are said to have "demonstratively thrown the hats of two SPD members on the ground".
The alleged aggressors shouted abuse at the campaigners before knocking them to the floor, police said.
The attackers kicked one of them several times in the head and torso with combat-style "jump boots".
Two police officers who attended to the scene were also attacked and injured.
One of the two law enforcement officials was also racially abused, police said.
Both the officers and one of the SPD activists were taken to hospital.
The alleged perpetrators were being held in custody on suspicion of causing dangerous bodily harm and attacking law enforcement.
The incident, which comes just over two months before Germany is set to vote in a snap election on February 23, was "brutal right-wing extremist violence against committed democrats" Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on social media.
"This crime must be severely punished," said Faeser, who is a member of the SPD
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