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CRIME

Manhunt begins after bank raid shoot-out

An explosion and gunfire shattered the silence in the normally sleepy eastern German city of Magdeburg on in the early hours of Friday morning, as police became embroiled in a shoot-out with bank robbers.

Published: 29 November 2013 11:56 CET
Manhunt begins after bank raid shoot-out
The crime scene in Magdeburg. DPA/Jan Helmecke

The robbers set off an explosive at 3am outside a branch of the Sparkasse bank in an attempt to break into a cash machine. But they were interrupted by officers, a police spokesman said.

Unwilling to come out quietly, the criminals opened fire without warning, the spokesman added.

A gunfight ensued, and though no police officers were injured, the robbers were able to make their escape in a dark-coloured car, taking the Bundesstraße 1.

Though the officers took off in pursuit, they lost the car in the darkness. A helicopter with a thermal imaging device also failed to track down the robbers, and investigators do not know the car’s make or model.

A nationwide manhunt is now under way, with police making a call for witnesses who may have seen the car fleeing on a motorway in the early hours, to come forward.

The bank was severely damaged by the explosion, and it remains unclear whether the bank robbers managed to escape with any loot.

READ MORE: Top cop keeps job despite rape conviction 

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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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