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CRIME

Stabbing at Berlin TV Tower leaves two hospitalized

Two young men had to be treated in hospital on Sunday after they were attacked by a group armed with knives under the TV Tower in Alexanderplatz, Berlin's most iconic location.

Published: 7 November 2016 14:29 CET
Stabbing at Berlin TV Tower leaves two hospitalized
Alexanderplatz. Photo: DPA

The attack took place shortly before midnight on Sunday, when a group of four unidentified men attacked another group of young men, police report.

Both knives and pepper spray were used during the assault. The men who were taken to hospital – aged 19 and 25 – suffered stab wounds to their upper bodies and hips. They were taken to hospital after receiving emergency treatment at Alexanderplatz

The attackers were able to flee before police arrived on the scene.

Despite being one of the main tourist hot spots in Berlin, the centrally located Alexanderplatz, home to the 368-metre Fernsehturm (television tower), has a long record of violent crime.

Figures released in March show that the number of violent offences at Alex – as it's fondly known to Berliners – remained consistent at around 600 per year between 2011 and 2015.

Ever since 20-year-old Johnny K. was beaten to death by six men in October 2012, an extra police team has been in place to watch over the tourist, shopping and travel nexus in the former East of the city.

In 2015, police registered 481 cases of assault, 62 instances of coercion and threats, 51 cases of robbery and three counts of the most serious crimes: rape, murder and homicide, some of them attempted.

Cases of pick-pocketing also increased by 54 percent between 2014 and 2015.

“We need combined supervision at Alexanderplatz; a joint effort of the public order office [Ordnungsamt], federal police [responsible for policing transport infrastructure], and city police,” city representative Tom Schreiber of the Social Democrats (SPD) told The Local in March in response to the police figures.

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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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