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CRIME

Two killed in shooting in western Germany

Two people were killed Thursday in a shooting in a west German town, with police saying the circumstances surrounding the incident remained unclear.

Published: 18 June 2021 09:01 CEST
Two killed in shooting in western Germany
A policeman stands in front of the crime scene in Espelkamp. Photo: dpa | Lino Mirgeler

Police said they were informed shots had been fired in Espelkamp, in Germany’s most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia, on Thursday morning.

They found a 48-year-old man dead at the scene and a woman also died from severe injuries despite attempts to resuscitate her.

A 52-year-old man from the nearby town of Diepenau was arrested in the afternoon but the motive remains unclear, police said.

Gun laws were tightened in Germany after two school massacres in the eastern city of Erfurt in April 2002 and in the southwestern town of Winnenden in March 2009, both of which were also carried out with legal weapons.

The country, which has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe, now requires anyone younger than 25 to pass a psychiatric exam before applying for a gun licence.

Nine people were killed when gunman David Ali Sonboly went on a rampage in a shopping centre in Munich in 2016.

At least 35 people were also wounded during the attack, which began at a McDonald’s franchise and ended with the gunman turning his 9mm Glock pistol on himself.

The Munich assault sparked a debate about whether Germany’s strict gun laws should be tightened further.

Member comments

  1. Is it already clear if this happened through a legally detained weapon or not ?
    You stated circumstances are not clear. It seems too early to speculate on guns law, that is already one of the strictest in Europe.
    And, in case of people killing others by cars/trucks, are you suggesting driving license should be harder to get ?

  2. David Ali Sonboly didn’t got the gun legally. To restrict guns law have impact only on loyal people. It is just a political move, useless.

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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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