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CRIME

German intruder turns out to be albino rabbit

Mysterious tapping noises late on Tuesday night caused residents in an apartment building in Wetter in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to alarm police, who broke into the empty apartment only to find an albino rabbit amusing himself in his cage, police reported on Wednesday.

Published: 16 July 2008 15:18 CEST
German intruder turns out to be albino rabbit
Photo: DPA

The inhabitants of the flat were out of town, so neighbours were concerned when they heard thumping noises and alerted the authorities, fearing an intruder. Police said they heard the noises upon arrival, and were particularly alarmed when the enigmatic being behind the door reacted to their verbal inquiries with angry thumping.

Police broke into the apartment and found an albino rabbit in a large metal cage who was passing the time by drumming its hind legs against the floor of his abode. Police made sure the animal was safe and tended to him before taking their leave.

CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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