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CRIME

Great Dane attacks girl in Lower Saxony

An 8-year-old girl has been attacked by a Great Dane in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony police reported on Saturday, the third such incident in the northern German state this week.

Published: 28 June 2008 13:04 CEST
Great Dane attacks girl in Lower Saxony
Germany already has muzzle laws for so-called attack dogs. Photo: dpa

The little girl was bitten several times by the dog, which was running free on Friday. Its owner’s whereabouts are still unknown. The child only escaped more serious injuries because her 15-year-old sister managed to chase the Great Dane away. After being treated by a pediatrician the child was able to return home.

The incident is the third dog attack on children within the last few days in the Lower Saxony. On Thursday, a pit bull seriously injured a two-year-old girl in Ovelgönne. The child and her mother were visiting her godmother when the godmother’s dog suddenly attacked the child. The toddler is now in intensive care, according to a police spokeswoman.

And a few days ago a Rottweiler attacked another 8-year-old girl in Bad Fallingbostel, when the child and her mother walked past a farmhouse. The child sustained serious bite wounds in her face and on her arms.

Following the spate of attacks German politicians are demanding more stringent controls and tougher punishments. Social Democratic parliamentarian Karl Lauterbach went so far as to demand that dog owners take full responsibility for any injuries.

“Attack dog owners are well aware of the risks their dogs pose to children and therefore should be punished with all severity as if they themselves had injured the children,” he told Bild newspaper on Saturday.

Georg Ehrmann, chairman of children’s charity Deutsche Kinderhilfe in Berlin, demanded that all dangerous races of dogs be put on a national list so that these animals be forced to wear muzzles and be on a leash at all times.

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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