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CRIME

Landlord shot dead in rent dispute

A 41-year-old man was shot dead in Duisburg after he cut off electricity and water to a tenant who was late with his rent, police said on Friday.

Landlord shot dead in rent dispute
Photo: DPA

The shooting took place late on Thursday evening after the victim cut off the electricity and water supply to a bakery premises he had leased to the attacker in the city in North Rhine-Westphalia.

He was shot with a pistol at close range at least once as he sat in a parked car, and died from his injuries while being taken to hospital in an ambulance. His brother was also in the vehicle but escaped harm after the weapon jammed.

The shooter, who leased the bakery but was late with his rent, then hailed a taxi and turned himself in to police, who recovered the weapon from the vehicle.

In a separate incident in Duisburg on Thursday, a 39-year-old man was shot in the stomach during an altercation. His condition was stable and a search was underway for the attacker, police said.

SEE ALSO: Knife-wielding man killed on motorway

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.

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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