The incident occurred last Friday near the central town square of Bad Pyrmont in the state of Lower Saxony. It is not yet clear what motivated the attack, in which the boys reportedly knocked the boy to the ground with their fists and then kicked him repeatedly.

“A witness saw the incident and separated the attackers from the victim,” Udo Nacke, head of the Bad Pyrmont police told the website of news magazine Der Spiegel. The woman then passed the boy on to his parents, who took him to a child hospital in the nearby town of Hamelin.

He spent three days in hospital being treated for abdominal trauma, but was released Tuesday. “He is doing okay,” said Nacke.

The victim is said to have known his attackers from school, but was not friends with them. He told the police he did not do anything to provoke the attack.

Nacke said the twins have been arrested in the past for assault and theft. They will be questioned on Tuesday and Wednesday.

DPA/The Local/bk