Teen turns himself in to police for attacking German MEP in Dresden

A street sign "Schandauer Straße" is mounted above a traffic light in Striesen. Matthias Ecke, Saxony's leading SPD candidate for the European elections, was attacked and seriously injured while putting up posters in the Striesen district of Dresden. Robert Michael/dpa

Police say a 17-year-old has turned himself in following an attack in Dresden on Matthias Ecke, a German member of the European Parliament.

The teen reported to the Dresden-Süd police station early Sunday morning and told officers he had assaulted the politician from the Social Democratic Party, the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) says.

The investigation is ongoing and police are working to corroborate the teen's statements, a LKA spokeswoman says.

Ecke was brutally beaten by a gang of four assailants on Friday evening while hanging campaign posters in the eastern German city. He was hospitalized and required surgery.

Witnesses described the assailants as dressed in dark clothing and said they seemed to be part of the far-right extremist scene.

The three other suspects are still unknown, police say.

An election poster for Matthias Ecke, the Saxon SPD's leading candidate in the European elections, hangs on a lamppost on Schandauer Strasse in the Striesen district of Dresden. Robert Michael/dpa
MEP Matthias Ecke at the state party conference of the SPD Saxony in Chemnitz, where he was again nominated as a candidate for the upcoming election. Heiko Rebsch/dpa

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