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‘Kidnapped’ French teen found in car boot

A 15-year-old girl whose disappearance from her home in southern France sparked a nationwide hunt has been found alive in the boot of a car in Germany, police said on Friday.

Published: 16 November 2012 15:30 CET

'Kidnapped' French teen found in car boot

Photo: Private

Chloe Rodriguez was discovered by German police near Offenburg, southwestern Germany, close to the French border, during a routine check of a car.

The driver, who came from the same region as the girl and was wanted for robbery in Germany, was arrested, a French police spokesman said.

The girl was taken to hospital but initial indications suggested she had not been harmed.

She had been missing since November 9, when she left her friend’s home on a moped and failed to return. Her parents alerted the police that night, and they found her moped near the friend’s house, with all her personal effects in it except her helmet and mobile phone.

Officers and volunteers then spent five days searching an area of 16 square kilometres around Barjac. Divers were also called in to search local ponds and lakes. Officers also interviewed a number of the girl’s friends and relatives.

Chloe’s mother has revealed that her daughter may have been in a state of emotional distress at the time of her disappearance.

Local police expect to open an investigation into a suspected kidnapping following the recovery of the girl – and have demanded the extradition of the man from Germany.

AFP/DAPD/The Local/bk

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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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