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CRIME

Man drowns in storm drain trying to get lost car keys

A 22-year-old Bonn man apparently drowned in a storm drain while trying to retrieve the keys to his car, local police officials said Friday.

Published: 28 November 2008 16:33 CET
Man drowns in storm drain trying to get lost car keys
Photo: DPA

A father taking his child to kindergarten discovered a pair of trainers protruding from a storm drain at the side of the road and, upon inspection, discovered a body hanging upside down

The victim lost the keys to his Nissan 350Z down the drain and removed the cover in an attempt to recover them. He apparently lost his balance as he reached for the keys and became stuck in the tight drain, drowning in the rainwater at the bottom.

City officials said they found the keys when they went to recover the body and have ruled out foul play.

“In cases like this you can call us,” an unnamed city official told tabloid Express. “We’ll get the keys out.”

The paper said the victim had been drinking with a co-worker before heading home.

It’s unknown how long the body was in the drain before it was found, the police said.

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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