Austrian right-wing group storms refugee theatre performance

VIENNA (Reuters) - An Austrian right-wing group stormed the stage during the performance of a play by Nobel prize-winner Elfriede Jelinek which featured refugees as actors, sputtering artificial blood and distributing flyers saying "multi-culturalism kills". The attack on the refugees late on Thursday came as the right-wing Freedom Party, which runs on an anti-immigration platform, is leading the ruling centrist parties in opinion polls, including for presidential elections later this month. As police arrived at the scene, around 30 members of the right-wing Identitaere group were embroiled in a brawl with spectators shouting 'get out, Nazis'. Eight people have pressed assault charges against members of the Identitaere, police said. A spokesman for the Identitaere group said in a posting on Facebook that his group distances itself from neo-Nazis and did not want to attack the actors or physically attack spectators. In a statement, it said those in support of multi-culturalism "act in hatred of our homeland." Jelinek, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 2004, wrote the 2013 play 'The Wards' to highlight the plight of refugees in Europe. (Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Dominic Evans)