Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

Five German tourists kidnapped in Egypt

Five German tourists have been kidnapped in Egypt, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin confirmed on Monday.

Published: 22 September 2008 17:24 CEST

Five German tourists kidnapped in Egypt

A file photo of southern Egypt. Photo: DPA

“We must assume that they were kidnapped,” a spokesperson said, adding that an emergency task force was working to find a quick solution to the situation.

The vacationers were abducted along with five Italians and a Romanian tourist in a remote desert in southwestern Egypt on Friday, an Egyptian security official told state television on Monday.

The group was on a safari in the Sahara Desert near Kark-Talh when their vehicles were stopped by masked men with weapons and taken towards Sudan, according to Egyptian sources. The kidnappers are demanding $15 million for the release of the hostages, news agency DDP reported, a figure the German Foreign Office has not yet confirmed.

“Four masked gunmen attacked the four cars they were riding and led them towards Sudanese territory at gunpoint,” the state MENA news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying.

The tourism ministry said the kidnapping happened on Friday but authorities only became aware when the tour company owner, who is among the missing, used a satellite telephone to call his German wife and tell her of the ransom demand.

Berlin's former mayor injured amid spate of attacks on German politicians

Giffey, who is currently Berlin’s senator for economic affairs, was assaulted at a library in the district of Rudow on Tuesday afternoon, police said on Wednesday.

The suspect attacked Giffey “from behind with a bag filled with hard contents and hit her on the head and neck”. police said in a statement.

Giffey, who is a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), was briefly treated in hospital for “head and neck pain”, said police.

Berlin’s current mayor Kai Wegner condemned the assault on Giffey, saying anyone who attacks politicians are “attacking our democracy”.

“We will not tolerate this,” he said, vowing to examine “tougher sentences for attacks against politicians”.

It comes amid a spate of attacks on politicians in the run up to the European elections next month.

Less than three hours later in the eastern city of Dresden, there was another attack on a Green Party politician while the conference of interior ministers was meeting at the same time.

Police said the victim was a 47-year-old woman who was threatened and spat on.

The politician was putting up campaign posters for the European elections when a man came up, pushed her to the side and tore down two posters.

The man insulted and threatened the politician, while a woman joined in and spat on the victim, police said.

Both suspects were arrested, police said, identifying them as a 34-year-old German man and a 24-year-old woman.

S-Bahn in Dresden

A train drives through Dresden, which has seen two attacks on politicians recently. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Robert Michael

Both were in a group who were standing at the area and who had begun making the banned Hitler salute when the politician began hanging up posters.

The suspects were arrested, police said, identifying them as a 34-year-old German man and a 24-year-old woman.

Last Friday, a European parliament lawmaker, also of the SPD, was seriously injured by four attackers last week as he put up EU election posters – also in Dresden.

Matthias Ecke, 41, needed an operation for serious injuries sustained in the attack, which was denounced by Scholz as a threat to democracy.

READ ALSO: Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The incidents have sparked a debate in Germany over the safety of politicians and how best to deal with the violence.

Berlin interior senator Iris Spranger (SPD), said on X: “I strongly condemn the attack on Franziska Giffey and on other politicians and election workers, all of whom are committed to a democratic debate.”

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but fewer than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

Url copied to clipboard!