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CRIME

Young cyclist killed after being hit by getaway car in west Berlin

A young woman was tragically killed in Berlin's Charlottenburg district on Wednesday after a car hit her while making a getaway from an attempted robbery.

Published: 7 June 2018 12:47 CEST
Young cyclist killed after being hit by getaway car in west Berlin
A bicycle lamp lies on the street at the corner of Kantstraße and Windscheidstraße. Photo: DPA

The getaway car crashed into the woman while she pushed her bike along the pavement in the wealthy western district. Three passengers in the car and a further three people were injured in the collision, some of them seriously.

Police confirmed on Thursday morning that the victim was just 22 years old. Medics attempted to resuscitate her, but sadly she died at the scene.

The trio in the getaway car had tried to steal tools from a Ford Transit van on the corner of Brandenburgische Straße and Westfälische Straße in the south-western district of Wilmersdorf, police report. When the suspects tried to drive away they were followed by plain-clothed officers. 

The driver first drove over a policeman who had tried to stop the car, then sped through a red light, causing a collision with two other cars. The young woman was also struck during the crash.

Even then though, the chase wasn't over, as the driver attempted to flee the scene. But police officers were able to detain him soon after. The two other men were arrested in the car.

It was also confirmed on Thursday morning that the 27-year-old driver had been under the influence of alcohol and that his accomplices – 14 and 18 years old – were injured during the incident.

Official figures released this week show that more people have died on the streets of Berlin so far in 2018 than in the whole of last year.

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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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