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CRIME

Drunk British soldier takes tank joyride

A drunk British soldier stole two small tanks from his northern German base for a joyride towards the town of Bergen at 4 am on Friday morning, a British Army spokesperson told The Local.

Published: 20 February 2009 15:04 CET
Drunk British soldier takes tank joyride
A file photo of a British Scimitar light tank from the US DOD.

“He had a blood alcohol content of 1 promille – past the legal driving limit in Germany – and decided he’d like to take one of the vehicles out of camp,” British Army spokesperson Helga Heine said. “At some point he wrecked the tank, got out, went back and got another one and drove it in the same direction, hitting a tree before he was stopped.”

German police in the state of Lower Saxony reported that the 18-year-old Camp Hohne soldier stole two tanks, but Heine said they were actually Scimitars, which are armoured reconnaissance vehicles often called light tanks.

Just before the soldier reached the Bergen city limit, British military police stopped him as he almost rammed an oncoming car, police said. The soldier then ran a patrol car off the road and lost control of the tank, hitting a guide post before being halted by a 75-centimetre-thick tree, police reported.

Military police arrested the soldier and are being assisted in their investigation by German police.

“We all got the giggles when we read this,” Heine told The Local. “But stealing a vehicle is a serious offense and it will be dealt with accordingly.”

Camp Hohne is home to some 2,000 British soldiers and the headquarters of the 7th Armoured Brigade.

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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