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Great Dane attacks girl in Lower Saxony

An 8-year-old girl has been attacked by a Great Dane in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony police reported on Saturday, the third such incident in the northern German state this week.

Published: 28 June 2008 13:04 CEST

Great Dane attacks girl in Lower Saxony

Germany already has muzzle laws for so-called attack dogs. Photo: dpa

The little girl was bitten several times by the dog, which was running free on Friday. Its owner’s whereabouts are still unknown. The child only escaped more serious injuries because her 15-year-old sister managed to chase the Great Dane away. After being treated by a pediatrician the child was able to return home.

The incident is the third dog attack on children within the last few days in the Lower Saxony. On Thursday, a pit bull seriously injured a two-year-old girl in Ovelgönne. The child and her mother were visiting her godmother when the godmother’s dog suddenly attacked the child. The toddler is now in intensive care, according to a police spokeswoman.

And a few days ago a Rottweiler attacked another 8-year-old girl in Bad Fallingbostel, when the child and her mother walked past a farmhouse. The child sustained serious bite wounds in her face and on her arms.

Following the spate of attacks German politicians are demanding more stringent controls and tougher punishments. Social Democratic parliamentarian Karl Lauterbach went so far as to demand that dog owners take full responsibility for any injuries.

“Attack dog owners are well aware of the risks their dogs pose to children and therefore should be punished with all severity as if they themselves had injured the children,” he told Bild newspaper on Saturday.

Georg Ehrmann, chairman of children’s charity Deutsche Kinderhilfe in Berlin, demanded that all dangerous races of dogs be put on a national list so that these animals be forced to wear muzzles and be on a leash at all times.

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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