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CRIME

Daredevil pensioner in reckless road rampage

Police in Meschede, western Germany, were astonished when a car overtook them on the wrong side of a state road, only to discover that the dangerous driver was 76 years old.

Published: 6 May 2015 14:25 CEST
Updated: 6 May 2015 16:05 CEST
Daredevil pensioner in reckless road rampage
Need for speed - not the man or vehicle in question. Photo: DPA

The septuagenarian has had his license taken away after the incident that could have easily caused an accident.

According to police reports, the elderly driver went past a line of traffic by entering the bus lane, before trying to squeeze between the police vehicle and the roadside barrier in order to rejoin the correct lane.

The police officers driving along the state road in North Rhine Westphalia suddenly noticed the car on their right. The officer at the wheel was forced to break sharply and veer off to the left to avoid an accident.

Afterwards the daredevil pensioner continued undeterred on his rampage and overtook even more vehicles using the filter lane, the no access area and the lane of oncoming traffic with no apparent consideration for other road users.

The police set off in pursuit of the hazardous driver and managed to stop the vehicle in the nearest town. When he was finally pulled over, a motorcyclist also stopped and said he had almost been run over by the elderly motorist.

Police confiscated the 76 year-old's driver's licence. Despite his perilous use of the road, the pensioner was perplexed by the accusations of dangerous driving.

Police have brought charges him, and are asking for further witnesses to come forward.

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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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