Stones and petrol bombs were thrown at an apartment block where asylum seekers lived.

At the height of the riots, several hundred militant right-wing extremists were involved, and about 3,000 neighbourhood onlookers stood by, applauding them.

[2] For some days prior to the riots, veiled warnings of impending trouble had been posted in some newspapers.

[2] Outside the building where the refugees were housed, several hundred asylum seekers had been camping for days with little or no access to basic facilities.

The building was notorious for the inhumane conditions under which the asylum seekers there were living and the lack of support (if any) provided for them.

The authorities had ignored numerous complaints from citizens and residents over the filthy and deplorable conditions in the apartment building.

Primarily Roma from Romania, they were left by overstretched shelter staff to camp out in front of the building for days at a time.

The municipal government refused to provide portable toilets and there was no water or garbage collection.

For days before the riots, the newspapers Norddeutsche Neueste Nachrichten and Ostsee-Zeitung had been calling for a "Lichtenhagen interest group".

This gave young gang members from every corner of Rostock, normally enemies, a date, place and purpose to congregate.

The original target, the asylum accommodation, was evacuated on the second day, whereupon the mob stormed a neighbouring building in which 115 Vietnamese immigrants, a social worker and a ZDF television crew had mistakenly been left behind.

While the building burned, they barricaded their doors against rioters, who were climbing over the balconies armed with baseball bats and Molotov cocktails.

A 22-year-old man was convicted of throwing a firebomb at police, of seriously disturbing the peace, violating weapons laws and attempted bodily harm.

[citation needed] The following timeline was reconstructed by the "Legislative Committee to Investigate the Refugee Shelter Incident" ("Parlamentarischer Untersuchungsausschuss zu den Ereignissen um die ZAst").

[citation needed] August 22, Day 1 From about 6:00 p.m. a large crowd assembled in front of the refugee shelter.

August 24, Day 3, Part 2 7:45 p.m. Reinforcements from the 4th Brigade, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern arrived to replace the Hamburg riot units, now in action for 21 hours.

At 10:37 p.m. the 4th Brigade MV formed a police cordon and aimed the water cannon at the crowd to allow the fire department to get through.

The police had a strong presence and up to 7 water cannons were used to clear the streets surrounding the apartment complex.

Copycat acts In the week after the riots in Rostock, neo-Nazis attacked 40 residences with firebombs and stones, and fought street battles with the police.

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the following few days, the asylum centers in Wismar, Rostock-Hinrichshagen, Lübz, and Neubrandenburg were attacked, and there were three such incidents in Greifswald.

In Wismar there was a six-day riot between 15 and 20 September in front of the asylum center, where, as in Lichtenhagen, there was applause from local residents.

[citation needed] Legal proceedings The attacks led to 370 arrests and 408 preliminary investigations.

[citation needed] Cases were brought before the Regional Court of Rostock against 257 persons, most of which were dropped.

[citation needed] An investigation against Rostock police chief Siegfried Kordus was discontinued in 1994.