Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

German ski bus bursts into flames in Austria

A bus filled with German ski tourists in Austria caught on fire early Saturday morning, injuring at least four passengers.

Published: 7 March 2009 12:17 CET

German ski bus bursts into flames in Austria

Photo: DPA

The fully-loaded bus was carrying a group of 16 to 21 year-olds from Düsseldorf and nearby towns when it caught fire near the Austrian town of Bischofshofen, about 50 kilometres outside of Salzburg.

The fire started after the bus came across a rear-end collision involving other vehicles on the highway. The bus avoided the collision, but somehow burst into flames shortly afterward, according to police.

The skiers were able to exit the bus safely, but four passengers were treated for smoke inhalation at a nearby hospital. Three people were also injured, two seriously, in the rear-end collision.

Millions of Germans travel to Austria every year to ski. This winter has seen record snowfalls throughout the Alps, with a correspondingly high level of avalanche danger.

German police swoop on gang of foreign dating scammers

The Black Axe gang was involved internationally in “multiple areas of criminal activity”, with a focus in Germany on romance scams and money-laundering, Bavarian police said in a statement.

The dating trick was a “modern form of marriage fraud”, police said.

“Using false identities, the fraudsters for example signalled their intention to marry and in the course of further contact repeatedly demand money under various pretexts,” police said.

The money was subsequently transferred to Black Axe in Nigeria “via financial agents”, authorities said.

In the process, the gang used a “commodity-based money laundering” scheme where products, often with a seeming “charitable purpose” were bought and delivered to Nigeria.

Some 450 cases of romance scamming had been reported in the region of Bavaria in 2023 alone, with the damages rising to 5.3 million euros ($5.7 million), police said.

The suspects, who all held Nigerian citizenship and were aged between 29 and 53, were arrested in nationwide raids on Tuesday.

Law enforcement swooped on 19 properties, including both homes and asylum shelters, police said.

The Black Axe gang had “strict hierarchical structures under leadership in Nigeria” operating different territorial units, police said.

The group had a “significant influence” on politics and public administrations, in particular in Nigeria.

Globally, the gang’s main areas of operation were “human-trafficking, fraud, money-laundering, prostitution and drug-trafficking”.

Black Axe operated under the cover of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, an ostensibly charitable organisation used as “camouflage” for the gang’s structures.

The action against Black Axe was the first of its kind in Germany, police said.

Url copied to clipboard!