A viral video from the Netherlands shows a lone male victim being kicked, punched, and pushed onto the tracks at Amsterdam’s Bijlmer ArenA station by a large group of males, with the incident garnering attention from the Dutch political sphere.
Police are searching for both the victim, whose condition remains unknown, as well as the perpetrators.
The viciousness of the beating caught the attention of many across the Netherlands, including Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who leads the Party for Freedom (PVV) and commented on the graphic video.
In response to the video, he simply wrote: “The multicultural hell.”
The assault was reported on May 6 at 9:25 p.m. and the video of the assault appeared nearly immediately afterward, according to Dutch newspaper Telegraaf. At least 10 people are seen in the footage beating the young man, including hitting him with blows to the head. A very young boy is also seen participating in the beating.
The video, which has over half a million views on Twitter, also garnered a number of critical responses.
Faisal Khan, for instance, wrote: “Am I seeing correctly? Does a toddler also intervene to kick someone senseless? What a rude, uneducated, hopeless scum that is.”
Police are unsure what led to the incident.
During the beating, other young people are seen applauding and shouting. When the victim manages to get up, one of the perpetrators pushes the victim onto the tracks, where he remains lying between the rails. According to police, the victim is lucky to be alive, considering trains run every few minutes over the tracks.
The police say they are actively searching for the victim.
“We are looking for him urgently for two reasons,” said a police spokeswoman.
“We want to hear his story because we want to find the perpetrators of the attack. But we are also worried: He was kicked in the head, among other things, and it is therefore very important that he be examined by a doctor.”
Dutch newspaper NOH sent a reporter to the scene of the attack, where he found a boy at the station who said he was present for the beating. He also showed the reporter a film he made of the attack. The witness said he knows some of the men who participated in the attack but would not say more, saying: “I don’t want to get into trouble.”
Another boy who entered the station spoke to the reporter, saying he knows who was involved, but said he would not “snitch” and go to the police with any information about who perpetrated the attack.
“It’s very difficult for us to say what preceded this case,” a police spokeswoman said.