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CRIME

20 dead snakes found in bag, live ones on train

A hydroelectric plant worker in central Germany made a gruesome discovery when he opened a bag hanging on a rake which contained 20 dead snakes. Seven live snakes, including pythons were also found on a train.

Published: 19 September 2013 07:09 CEST
20 dead snakes found in bag, live ones on train
Photo: DPA

The employee was on shift at the power plant in Hesse, central Germany, on Tuesday when he noticed a bin bag hanging from a rake in the grounds. Upon opening it, he found it contained 20 dead snakes, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Wednesday.

Police from the nearby Dillenburg area believe that they had been put in the bag alive, before being left to die. Ten of the snakes were just weeks old. There are no clues at this point as to who is behind the incident.

On Tuesday in nearby Frankfurt, a woman was arrested for theft on a train. She allegedly stole €300 from a fellow passenger on the journey from Mainz to Frankfurt. But when police searched her backpack at Frankfurt train station they found a bag that appeared to be wriggling. They opened it to find seven live snakes – three of which were pythons. The other four were corn snakes.

The 37-year-old Berliner, who had managed to steal €300 in cash from a fellow passenger, claimed she knew nothing about the snakes, so police called a vet.

The Local/jcw

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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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