Three attacks raise terror fears in Germany
Elderly man badly hurt by machete and tear gas sprayed at rail passengers after Düsseldorf rampage ‘The train came and suddenly someone jumped out with an axe, hit the people. There was blood everywhere’
AN ELDERLY man was attacked with a machete in Düsseldorf yesterday, just hours after a similar attack by a mentally ill asylum-seeker wielding an axe left nine people injured at the city’s train station.
In a third attack, tear gas was sprayed inside a train carriage carrying around 50 passengers including a family with two young children in Hamburg last night.
The 80-year-old victim of the machete attack, who has not been named, was rushed to hospital after being assaulted in a car park on the northern outskirts of the city yesterday. His attacker remains at large. Teachers and students at the nearby Theodor-Fliedner-Gymnasium were told to stay indoors as police cordoned off a woodland area near Kalkumer Schlossallee, the site of the car park.
Hours before he was attacked, a 36-year-old man from Kosovo wounded nine passengers with an axe at Düsseldorf train station before trying to escape by jumping from a bridge on to a street, where he was arrested. Prosecutors said the man, named locally as Fatmir H, arrived in Germany in 2009 and was granted temporary residency for humanitarian reasons. He had been due to be deported but last year he received permission to stay until 2018, a German newspaper said.
Six people including a child were injured in the tear gas incident and were treated for eye and airway irritation when the train pulled up at the next train station at Sternschanze.
Two teenagers are suspected of carrying out the attack and both fled after police stopped and evacuated the train.
“I have experienced a lot, but I have never experienced anything like this,” said one eyewitness of the axe rampage. “The train came and suddenly someone jumped out with an axe, hit the people. There was blood everywhere.” Footage showed terrified commuters fleeing the scene. One passenger, Bruno Macedo, was tweeting as the attack unfolded. “Man with axe chased by police in Düsseldorf. Station closed. I am in the train things look bad,” he wrote, adding: “Stay away from #Dusseldorf train station crazy man with #axe on the lose [sic].”
The spate of violent attacks have raised fresh terror fears in Germany, where less than three months ago a Tunisian jihadist ploughed a truck into a Christmas market stall in Berlin, killing 12 people.
Police disclosed that the train station attacker Fatmir H suffered from psychological problems. Medical docu- ments found at his home in nearby Wuppertal indicated the suspect had had paranoid schizophrenia diagnosed, said Dietmar Kneip, a police official.
Among the nine people he injured on Thursday night was a 13-year-old girl and two Italian tourists. Three of the victims remain in a serious condition. Fatmir H was seriously injured when he jumped from the bridge in his escape attempt, breaking several bones, and is in hospital. He will be charged with nine counts of attempted manslaughter, prosecutors said.
Police refused to refer to either of the earlier incidents as being a “terrorist attack” or a “rampage”, adding that in both cases Islamism is not suspected as a motive. The attacks came as Germany’s lower house of parliament approved tougher anti-terror measures amid public safety concerns, which will make it easier for private firms to install CCTV in public areas.
Germany’s data protection act was also updated to include a key amendment that places greater emphasis on the protection of life, freedom and health. The act will make it more difficult for privacy advocates to block any future surveillance measures. German lawmakers also voted to introduce bodycams – small cameras that police officers will wear on their clothing.