Police help control Berlin school

Police officers have been checking students for weapons

Police have been deployed at a Berlin school after teachers complained that they could not cope with their students' aggression and disrespect.

Six officers were posted at the Ruetli secondary school in Berlin's Neukoelln district to check students for weapons.

In a letter asking for help, the head teacher said it had become almost impossible to hold orderly lessons.

Students were said to be ignoring or even attacking the teachers and fighting among themselves.

A teacher who recently left the school told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that ethnic Arab pupils were in the majority and were bullying ethnic Turks, Germans and other nationalities.

A student at the school told German N24 television that pupils were coming to school armed.

"Things have been getting worse and worse because people seem to be crazy here. They are bringing knives and weapons to school," the teenager said.

The education minister for Berlin, Klaus Boeger, said the school would soon be given two social workers and two psychologists to help pupils.