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CRIME

Deadly Lörrach rampage was premeditated

The killing spree that left four dead and 18 injured in Lörrach last weekend was at least partly planned in advance, investigators said on Friday after finding “extraordinary quantities” of explosive liquids in the murderer's apartment.

Published: 24 September 2010 16:01 CEST
Deadly Lörrach rampage was premeditated
Photo: DPA

The 41-year-old lawyer Sabine R. had amassed about 50 litres of Nitrocellulose lacquer, between 10 and 20 litres of gasoline and several litres of ethyl alcohol. The three substances make up an explosive combination, and were used to blow up an apartment on September 19 after she killed her ex-partner and their five-year-old son.

On Tuesday autopsies revealed that she had first knocked her son unconscious and then smothered him with a plastic bag, and that the father of her child had died of two bullet wounds to the head and neck.

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF THE RAMPAGE

After leaving the apartment, Sabine R., a recreational markswoman, went to the neighbouring St Elizabeth Hospital with a legally owned 22-calibre sports pistol and a knife, shooting at a few passersby on the way, before killing an orderly in the gynaecological ward and injuring a police officer before she was shot dead by other officers.

Earlier in the week media reports said that the woman had a miscarriage at the hospital in 2004, but on Friday investigators in the southwestern city said that she had also been turned down for a job in the hospital administration in 2006.

The motive for her deadly rampage seems to have been personal frustration, investigators said.

“According to the information available, the woman had a hard time with the separation from her husband and child,” a statement from the public prosecutor’s office said. “She also had difficulties finding her feet professionally.“

Her husband had left her for a new girlfriend in June, the statement added.

Sabine R. had also sought psychotherapy following several miscarriages, but did not stay in treatment long-term – something her husband had encouraged, investigators said.

She had also planned to take a course on hunting, and had stored three of her four weapons with a local hunter. She used the fourth weapon during her deadly rampage.

The 56-year-old hospital orderly, who Sabine R. shot three times in the head and stabbed several times in the upper body, was buried on Friday. With his death, he likely prevented the slaughter of several others, prosecutors said in a statement.

The woman had more than 300 rounds of ammunition on hand, but he managed to stall her for a “lengthy period of time” until the first police officer arrived on the scene.

Both Protestant and Catholic churches in Lörrach have memorial services planned for the victims of the rampage on Saturday.

DPA/ka

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CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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