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CRIME

Leipzig hostage-taker wanted attention for malpractice suit

The armed man who took hostages at a Leipzig clothing store on Tuesday was trying to draw attention to his suffering through alleged medical malpractice, the city’s public prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.

Published: 16 June 2010 13:35 CEST
Leipzig hostage-taker wanted attention for malpractice suit
Photo: DPA

“He wanted the greatest amount of attention possible for the pain supposedly inflicted upon him,” Ricardo Schulz said.

The 41-year-old has told authorities that some time ago he was mistreated by a doctor with whom he has been engaged in a legal battle since.

Customers in the branch of the fashion retail chain H&M called the police around 12:30 pm after the man entered the store near the city’s central Marktplatz. After threatening the hostages with a pistol and holding them for several hours, the man gave himself up to police in the late afternoon.

His nine-millimetre handgun was loaded, according to the authorities.

“He could theoretically have shot nine times,” Schulz said.

A few hostages were able to flee the chaotic scene, which forced the authorities to surround the shop and evacuat nearby buildings. Members of the state police made contact with the 41-year-old man, who then quickly surrendered.

Hendrik Alpen, a spokesman for H&M, said the company had sent counsellors to support customers and employees after the frightening incident.

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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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