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The police in Geraardsbergen are keeping extra surveillance around the station and in the center after a youth gang seriously assaulted a student.
“The police are patrolling extra today near the station and in the city center. The population should not feel unsafe, and certainly not children and school-aged youth.” Mayor Ann Panis (Open VLD) is responding with this measure to a case of serious aggression last Thursday at Geraardsbergen station. “The investigation will have to reveal exactly what happened. But according to the chief of police, three young people have already been arrested and made available to the juvenile judge.”
A 16-year-old student was punched by some young people at the station after school on Thursday. His father testified in the Nieuwsblad on Saturday that his son had refused to pay 100 euros to a youth gang in exchange for protection. “On Sunday evening they threatened my son on Snapchat,” he says. “He had to be at the station in Geraardsbergen at 8 a.m. on Monday with 100 euros.” On Monday the father went to the station with his son. According to the man, that was the first time there was a fight. “They wanted my son to sell drugs for them. He refused and then they said he had to pay them 100 euros.” According to the father, he and some of his friends were able to restrain the young people until the police arrived on the scene.
But on Thursday the 16-year-old was beaten when he was alone at the station. Footage of the fight posted on social media shows the young man being punched in the temple, falling to the ground and taking kicks. An older man who tried to defend the boy was also beaten. “My son’s nose is shattered and his eye socket is completely swollen,” the father said.
Three minor perpetrators were arrested and the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office has started an investigation. That will have to show what the exact context of the fight is.
Zottegem
The police are also investigating whether there is a connection with an earlier fight that same day at Zottegem station. There, about thirty young people fought with each other for unclear reasons. The police arrested two people and had to use batons to maintain order. A rock was also thrown through the window of a car. There was also a massive police presence on Friday before and after school to monitor the situation.
