Some members of the South High School community said that the violent incident was the culmination of ongoing tensions between the eight per cent of Muslim students of Somali decent and the 20 per cent who are African Americans.
What started out as a lunchtime food fight in a Minneapolis high school ended in a massive brawl involving hundreds of students and police officers wielding canisters of Mace.
Minneapolis South High School was placed on lockdown shortly before 1pm Thursday after violence broke out during third-period lunch inside the cafeteria between Muslim and black students.
The fight involved 200-300 students and lasted about 15 minutes, leaving four people injured. Teaching continued as usual during the lockdown, but students had to remain in their classrooms.
Students were let out at 3pm as usual, and parents were not asked to pick up their children. After-school activities proceeded as scheduled, CBS Minnesota reported.
According to a message posted Thursday afternoon on the school’s website, the incident began unfolding at around 12.45pm and quickly escalated into a large-scale physical confrontation.
More than 20 staff members and two school resource officers responded immediately and attempted to break up the fight, but were unable to handle the situation and called the Minneapolis Police Department for help.
Dozens of police officers who arrived on the scene tried to disperse the crowd of brawling teenagers, but to no avail.
They then formed a human chain often used during crowd control situation and called on the brawlers to stand down, but when that failed, police sprayed Mace into the air above the crowd.
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