Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

Hessen police shoot dead man in bakery rampage

Police in the central German city of Fulda said they shot dead a young Afghan refugee who went on a violent rampage in a bakery early Friday.

Published: 13 April 2018 11:18 CEST
Updated: 13 April 2018 15:47 CEST

Hessen police shoot dead man in bakery rampage

Bullet holes in front of the bakery in Fulda. Photo: Marius Auth/osthessen-news/DPA

The 19-year-old allegedly attacked the driver of a delivery truck at the bakery at 4:20am (0220 GMT), before smashing the shop's windows, local police and prosecutors said.

As police arrived on the scene, the young man flung stones at the officers.

Police subsequently opened fire, killing the man.

His motives, as well as the circumstances of the attack were as yet unclear, added authorities.

A spokesman for the prosecution service told AFP that there were currently no indications that the attack was due to political reasons.

In 2017, police in Hesse shot people in five cases, killing two people.

German politician shot 'through window' of his home

An unknown assailant shot several times at a local politician at his home on a farm in Hattenhofen near Stuttgart on Sunday morning.

According to the local police and the public prosecutor’s office, the politician – named by the Südwest-Presse as FDP district councillor Georg Gallus junior – has undergone surgery, but his life is not in danger.

Initial reports from the police and the public prosecutor’s office state that the shots were probably “fired at the man from outside through a window”. Investigators have asked witnesses to come forward with any information.

Motives unclear

So far, it is unclear whether the shooting was politically motivated, or whether there was an entirely different reason behind the attack. As of Monday, there were no signs of who the assailant might be.

A special commission is investigating possible links to other shootings in the region. On Friday evening, an unknown perpetrator fired shots outside a restaurant in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, injuring a man. There were also recent shootings by unknown assailants in Plochingen and Eislingen.

The local community of Hattenhofen has been left shocked by the attack.

READ ALSO: UPDATE: Gunman kills six people in shooting at Jehovah’s Witness centre in Hamburg

“The people here are stunned and horrified, but they have also become pensive and frightened,” Jochen Reutter, the mayor of the community of about 3,000 inhabitants in the district of Göppingen, told DPA.

Göppingen’s District Administrator Edgar Wolff also expressed his “deepest concern and shock at this act of violence” in a letter to the members of the district council.

FDP faction leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke told the German Press Agency: “I am horrified by the terrible news” and said that his thoughts were with the local politician and his family.

Url copied to clipboard!