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CRIME

German ski bus bursts into flames in Austria

A bus filled with German ski tourists in Austria caught on fire early Saturday morning, injuring at least four passengers.

Published: 7 March 2009 12:17 CET
German ski bus bursts into flames in Austria
Photo: DPA

The fully-loaded bus was carrying a group of 16 to 21 year-olds from Düsseldorf and nearby towns when it caught fire near the Austrian town of Bischofshofen, about 50 kilometres outside of Salzburg.

The fire started after the bus came across a rear-end collision involving other vehicles on the highway. The bus avoided the collision, but somehow burst into flames shortly afterward, according to police.

The skiers were able to exit the bus safely, but four passengers were treated for smoke inhalation at a nearby hospital. Three people were also injured, two seriously, in the rear-end collision.

Millions of Germans travel to Austria every year to ski. This winter has seen record snowfalls throughout the Alps, with a correspondingly high level of avalanche danger.

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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