A Syrian suspect has been arrested following chaos in Germany, with fires tearing through two blocks of flats leaving 30 people hurt – including eight children.
Two of the children who were hurt are in a life-threatening condition after inhaling smoke, according to local media.
They were reportedly thrown from windows to escape the flames, landing on cushions placed on the street in the city of Essen.
Neighbours tried to reach up with ladders to help people escape, but they weren’t long enough to reach the upper floors so brave residents worked together to lower children from the roof.
Footage posted on X shows a van ramming through two shops a short time after the fires in a rampage, allegedly targeting people connected to his wife who had left him.
The van caused damage but no injuries and a 41-year-old Syrian man was arrested at the scene on Saturday.
A 41-year-old Syrian suspect has been arrested following chaos in Germany
Neighbours tried to reach up with ladders to help people escape, but they weren’t long enough to reach the upper floors so brave residents worked together to lower children from the roof
The boarded up windows of a food shop are seen, where a man rammed a van into it, in Essen, western Germany
A destroyed entrance door of a commercial and apartment building is pictured in Essen
The damaged entrance door of a commercial and apartment building is pictured in Essen
A police cordon outside one of the blocks of flats which were set on fire
Pictures show shattered windows in the residential buildings in Essen
A police officer patrols in front of a food shop where a man rammed a van into it in Essen
Initial investigations indicated that the suspect’s alleged motive was that his wife had left him, the police said.
He had gone out armed with ‘knives and fire accelerants’ intending to target homes and shops in Essen connected with people who had supported his wife.
The Bild daily reported that the suspect had threatened passers-by with a machete.
According to German media, the suspect first set fire to a residential building, then another house on a different street.
He then crashed into the window of a vegetable shop before driving to another store, where he exited the van and brandished a machete.
The suspect allegedly threatened people with weapons, but several men managed to push him back with shovels and poles until the police arrived.
Police said the suspect was a 41-year-old Essen resident with Syrian citizenship.
According to the Germany Press Agency, the his lawyer Volker Schröder said he had no political motive and that it was a ‘purely tragic family story’.
The rampage comes at a time of heated debate in Germany over migration after a spate of suspected Islamist attacks.
This photo shows a stairwell of a residential building after a fire
The boarded up windows of a food shop in Essen following the incident
A police officer patrols in front of a food shop where a man rammed a van into it
The broken glass of a door is seen at the food shop after the incident
A police cordon is seen in front of an apartment building in Essen, which was set on fire
The damaged entrance door of a commercial and apartment building
A cordon by the destroyed entrance door of an apartment building is pictured in Essen
Three people were killed and eight wounded in a knife attack at a street festival in the western city of Solingen in August, allegedly carried out by a Syrian asylum seeker and claimed by the Islamic State group.
An Islamist motive is also suspected in the killing of a police officer in a knife attack on the market square in the city of Mannheim in May.
Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.
The government has introduced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.
Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-2016 at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis – a deeply divisive influx that has fuelled the popularity of the far-right AfD.
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Publish date : 2024-09-29 07:36:00
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