Dortmund police attacked as crowd storms kebab shop for €1 doner

Officers pelted with bottles, stones and fireworks after people try to get their hands on special introductory offer

Police were called to a doner kebab shop in Dortmund, western Germany on Sunday after hundreds of customers stormed the premises in the hope of securing a portion for a one-off rock bottom introductory price.

The owner of the outlet was forced to call the police after becoming overwhelmed by the crowds that turned up for its opening.

According to the owner, about 1,000 people were present. Police put the number at about 300.

The owner had advertised his €1 (£0.83) kebab offer in advance. The average price of a doner – marinated meat roasted on a rotisserie spit, sliced off and served with salad in pockets of warm flatbread or wraps – is usually around €7.50 to €9.

Until about 2020, the price had been betwen €3.50 to €4. The steep rise, largely the result of higher energy and food costs, has turned Germany’s most popular fast food – which is served more than 1.3bn times a year – into a palpable everyday symbol of the effects of inflation.

The owner hired private security guards to oversee the opening, but after they were quickly overwhelmed, he was forced to call the police when the situation got out of hand.

Officers were pelted with bottles, stones, fireworks, an electric scooter and a chair, a spokesperson said. Reinforcements were called, amounting to aabout 100 officers on the ground and a helicopter.

The head of Dortmund’s police, Tim Frommeyer, condemned the incident in a statement. “Anyone who uses violence, in this case once again against police officers, is not an adventure-seeking youth or a troublemaker, but a criminal,” he said.

He accused some of participants of having been out to attack the police from the start, describing it as part of a pattern of behaviour recently seen at rallies and demonstrations.

Several people were arrested. One was found to have a blank-firing pistol in his possession. A number of people face charges of breaching the peace, property damage and insult.

Police did not say whether the shop owner would face prosecution. He said he would donate the remaining kebabs to a homeless charity in the city.

The doner is seen as an immigrant success story, having been adapted into a flatbread snack by Turkish Gastarbeiter or guest workers in West Berlin more than 50 years ago. But a row erupted between Germany and Turkey two years ago when Istanbul applied to the European Commission to have the term recogniesd as a “guaranteed traditional speciality” throughout Europe.

Berlin objected and filed a veto, claiming that the application would create large bureaucratic hurdles and lead to even more doner inflation through the introduction of strictly designated production methods and specifications for the meat and spices used, and even the types of knives used to cut it.

The Istanbul-based International Döner Federation formally withdrew its application last autumn.