One of the remarks by the assailants was "Get out of here. You are taking away our jobs." The five youth have been detained on charges of causing physicial injuries and further investigations are on.

The shocking incident occurred in the industrial town of Leipzig in Saxony in eastern Germany where two Indian executives were among the first few foreign computer experts who got green cards as part of a new scheme launched by the German government on August one. Ironically the two incidents occurred on the same day.

This is second such incident in Leipzig after a gap of two months. An Indian researcher on a short-term visa was badly beaten up and dogs let loose on him while he emerged from a telephone booth in June.

The renewed wave of anti-foreigner violence in the past few months has caused concern in Germany with political and business leaders warning that it would discourage computer experts from moving to Germany and undermine chancellor Gerard Schroeder's ambitious green card initiative.

Schroeder has warned that Germany's image would be tarnished abroad because of the attacks on foreigners, which some analysts have described as resurgence of xenophobia in Germany. Xenophobia was at its peak in 1992.

There have been at least 28 extremist attacks against foreigners this year here and four deaths recorded in incidents that included repeated beatings and attempted firebombings of synagogues. Ultra-rightist groups and neo-Nazis have been blamed for these incidents.

- nriol.com report