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OFFBEAT

Audi blasts past French speed trap at 300 kph

French police have arrested a man caught driving a German-registered sports car so fast that their speed trap couldn't clock the estimated 300 kilometres (186 miles) per hour he was travelling.

Published: 15 March 2010 12:11 CET
Audi blasts past French speed trap at 300 kph
A file photo of the Audi R8. Photo: DPA

The young man, who had apparently borrowed the Audi R8 speedster from a friend, was travelling well above 250 kilometres per hour when he blew past speed monitors in northern France, French daily Le Parisien reported on Sunday.

The speed limit on the road was 130 kilometres per hour, but officials believe the Frenchman, who was found to have consumed cannabis after being stopped by police, may have been driving as fast as a dizzying 300 kilometres per hour.

The speed demon won’t be allowed to drive his friend’s car back to Germany any time soon, since he is scheduled to face French court proceedings.

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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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