BERLIN/BREMEN, Germany, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Youths set cars on fire overnight in Berlin and Bremen, causing officials to investigate links to the riots in neighboring France.
Five cars burned in Berlin's working class district Moabit on early Monday morning. No one was hurt, according to police reports.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Bremen, three cars, a closed-off former school building and trash cans were set afire in the Huchting district, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage. Huchting is a residential area and not considered a hot spot.
In both cases, no direct confrontation with police was reported. Officials said they would investigate possible links to the social unrest in France.
Wolfgang Schaeuble, a conservative selected as Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel's interior minister, told the German daily Bild the situation in France can't be compared with Germany's.
"The conditions in France are different from the ones we have," Schaeuble said. "We don't have these gigantic high-rise projects that they have on the edges of French cities."
He cautioned, however, that "we have to improve integration, particularly of young people. That means above all that they must master the German language."
Berlin's integration commissioner Guenter Piening said while it was possible that "individuals with or without migration backgrounds" would commit copy-cat crimes inspired by those in Paris, large-scale riots were unthinkable in Berlin.
