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CRIME

Boy, 11, suspected in girl’s death at German care home

An 11-year-old boy is suspected of involvement in the death of a 10-year-old girl at a children's care home in Germany, police said Friday.

Police at the crime scene
Boy, 11, suspected in girl's death at German care home. Photo: Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP

The girl was found dead in her room at a child and youth welfare facility in Wunsiedel, in Germany’s Bavaria region, on Tuesday.

Evidence collected at the crime scene “indicates the involvement of an 11-year-old boy” staying at the same facility, local police and prosecutors said in a joint statement.

“Since the 11-year-old boy is below the age of criminal responsibility, he has been placed in a secure facility as a preventive measure.”

The case comes with Germany still reeling from the killing of 12-year-old Luise, who was found dead in the western town of Freudenberg last month after suffering multiple stab wounds. Two schoolgirls, aged 12 and 13, have confessed to the murder.

READ ALSO: German schoolgirls confess to fatal stabbing of 12-year-old

Police and prosecutors declined to give further details on the Wunsiedel case but said the boy had not yet been questioned. They added that they were coordinating closely with local youth authorities.

Bavaria’s regional interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, praised the investigators for identifying a suspect “in a relatively short amount of time”.

“What’s important now is to clarify the exact circumstances of this tragedy,” he said.

The child and youth welfare centre in the small town of Wunsiedel, home to around 90 children and teenagers, said it was “deeply shocked” by the girl’s death.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the parents, the family, our children and our colleagues,” it said in a statement.

On its website, the institute describes itself as supporting “young people and their families who need help with their upbringing”.

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ANTI-SEMITISM

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

Anti-Semitic acts rose sharply in Germany last year, especially after war broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October, according to new figures released on Tuesday.

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

The Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) documented 4,782 anti-Semitic “incidents” in 2023 – an increase of more than 80 per cent on the previous year.

More than half of the incidents – which included threats, physical attacks and vandalism – were registered after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7th attack on Israel, RIAS said.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency last week also published figures showing a new record in anti-Semitic crimes in 2023.

A total of 5,164 crimes were recorded during the year, the agency said, compared with 2,641 in 2022.

Anti-Semitic crimes with a “religious-ideological motivation” jumped to 492 from just 33 the previous year, with the vast majority committed after October 7.

Felix Klein, the government’s commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, said the RIAS figures were “absolutely catastrophic”.

The Hamas attack had acted as an “accelerant” for anti-Semitism in Germany, he told a press conference in Berlin.

“Jewish life in Germany is under greater threat than it has ever been since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded,” he said.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,600 people, also mostly civilians, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Islamophobic incidents also increased dramatically in Germany last year, according to a separate report published on Monday.

The CLAIM alliance against Islamophobia said it had registered 1,926 attacks on Muslims in 2023, compared with just under 900 in 2023.

These included verbal abuse, discrimination, physical violence and damage to property.

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