Case under investigation

Wild brawl with skis “appalling incident”

The wild brawl broke out in front of the valley station of the Dorfbahn cable car in Gerlos. Those involved grabbed skis, snowboards and ski poles.(Bild: zVg)

The mayor of Gerlos, Andreas Haas, and cable car boss Franz Hörl comment on the attack by soccer fans in front of their village cable car in the Tyrolean Zillertal. Both speak of an "appalling" or "frightening" incident that is an exception. According to the head of the village, the case is still being investigated.

These are scenes that could have come from a movie starring Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. But they are real. And instead of chairs, two Dutch soccer fans in Gerlos hit ten of their fellow countrymen with skis, ski poles and snowboards in front of the valley station of the Dorfbahn cable car. The video we published has been viewed tens of thousands of times.

You usually only see this in larger cities and in front of soccer stadiums. The fact that something like this happens in Zillertal is unacceptable.

Franz Hörl

Bild: Christof Birbaumer

Victims did not accept the invitation to be questioned
As reported, a Dutchman and an uninvolved passer-by were injured in the wild brawl on Thursday evening at around 6 p.m. and taken to hospital. "The perpetrators were not questioned again. They will be charged with assault. The victims have not yet accepted an invitation to be questioned," a police spokeswoman told the "Krone".

The wild brawl broke out in front of the valley station of the Dorfbahn cable car in Gerlos. Those involved grabbed skis, snowboards and ski poles.(Bild: zVg)

"99 percent of the guests are peaceful"
"I was in Vienna at the time and wasn't there," says cable car operator and member of the National Council Franz Hörl. "As far as I know, the two attackers, who are Ajax Amsterdam fans, were celebrating somewhere else first. They were wearing a soccer kit and were asked by the other fans to take it off. They then disguised themselves and carried out the attack."

This incident is frightening. We've never had anything like this happen to this extent before. The case is still being investigated.

Gerlos-Bürgermeister Andreas Haas

Bild: zoom.tirol

For the cable car operator, the brawl is "appalling and cannot be justified by anything. You usually only see this in larger cities and in front of soccer stadiums. The fact that something like this is now being brought to us in the Zillertal is intolerable". Hörl concludes that "even more security guards could not have prevented this. Fortunately, 99 percent of our vacation guests are peaceful".

Head of the village wants to review the case with the police
"This incident is frightening," says Mayor Andreas Haas. "Something like this has never happened here to this extent before." The head of the village has announced that he will work through the case with the police so that "we can see how the municipality can help prevent something like this from happening again. The willingness of some people to use violence is simply shocking".