Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Family of four killed in a car blaze outside Berlin

The charred bodies of a woman and three children were found in a burned out car in Schönefeld just outside Berlin on Thursday morning. The police believe them to be the missing family of a local man.

Published: 24 September 2009 16:03 CEST
Family of four killed in a car blaze outside Berlin
Photo: DPA

The bodies, burned beyond recognition, have not yet been identified. The cause of the grisly incident is also unclear. “We are investigating in every direction,” a police spokesman said.

Residents reported the blaze on an empty street near Schönefeld Airport to police in the early hours of the morning. The deceased could be the wife and children of a man who sought the help of the police to find his family.

“He is not currently a suspect,” the spokesman said.

The completely destroyed car is now being examined by state investigators.

“We presume that it was the family’s vehicle,” said the spokesman.

The police are now asking residents to whether they noticed anything conspicuous.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS