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CRIME

Police surround armed robber in Frankfurt

Police surrounded an office block in central Frankfurt on Friday after an armed man tried to rob two businessmen of tens of thousands of euros before fleeing. Workers in the building were told to lock themselves in to avoid becoming hostages.

Published: 7 December 2012 15:34 CET
Police surround armed robber in Frankfurt
Photo: DPA

Streets around the Roßmarkt were closed off as the building was evacuated. But some people were told it was safer to stay where they were and lock themselves in their offices.

The incident started at lunchtime when two businessmen took tens of thousands of euros out of a bank and got into a car. The armed man got into the back seat and threatened them with a pistol.

One of the men got out of the car and ran, followed by the would-be robber, and then the other businessman. A woman then saw the armed man run into the office building.

The structure has shops on the ground floor including a bag store, as well as doctors offices, two flats and the offices of an airline.

Central Roßmarkt was closed off to keep the hundreds of passersby well away from the building, while helicopters could also be seen above the city.

A police commando unit entered the six-storey building at around 3 pm and started to search for the man.

DAPD/DPA/The Local/hc

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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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