Van ram horror
Terror driver kills 2, then takes own life
A crazed German drove a van into a crowd enjoying a sunny Saturday in the city of Muenster — killing at least two people and then fatally shooting himself, according to police.
There was no evidence that the 3:27 p.m. crash outside a popular eatery had an Islamic-extremist motive, but officials continued to probe all possibilities, a top German security official said.
“At the moment, nothing speaks for there being any Islamist background,” said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North-Rhine Westphalia, who said the driver is a citizen of the Fatherland with nothing in his background to indicate he’s an Islamist extremist, The Guardian reported.
At least 20 people were injured, including six in serious condition, officials said.
The attacker was identified by local outlets as a 48-year-old graphic designer named Jens Handeln, The Sun reported. He had survived a previous suicide attempt and was hospitalized for mental illness between 2014 and 2016, the outlet reported.
Broadcaster ZDF reported that the attacker had been in contact with far-right extremists but there was no evidence that he was one himself.
The attack happened in the heart of Muenster — known as the “city of peace” for a treaty signed there that ended the Thirty Years War in 1648 — as crowds in the city of 300,000 enjoyed the 76-degree temps, Germany’s warmest day of the year,
“The weather was fantastic, and all restaurants had put chairs outside,” a witness, Steffen Simonsen, told Germany’s ARD broadcaster. “I heard a loud, dull noise and suddenly everyone started shouting. Everyone started running toward the square and about a minute later, a police car had already arrived.”
Images showed a small gray VW delivery van apparently driven onto a sidewalk and into an outdoor cafe, overturning patio furniture at the popular Grosser Kiepenkerl restaurant.
“I’m angry — its cowardly to do something like this,” said an em- ployee at a nearby cafe who reported hearing a loud bang and people screaming.
A protest against Turkey’s involvement in Syria by 1,500 Kurdish people was planned to take place in the area.
Police said a suspicious object was found in the van and sent a bomb squad to check if it was an explosive.
They also spent Saturday evening searching the attacker’s apartment for explosives, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, and were probing where he obtained the gun he used to kill himself.
“All of Muenster is mourning this horrible incident,” Markus Lewe, the city’s mayor, said, according to Britain’s The Independent. “Our sympathy is with the relatives of those who were killed. We wish the injured a quick recovery.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she is “deeply shocked by the terrible events.”
“Everything conceivable is being done to investigate the crime and to support the victims and their relatives,” she said.
The incident happened on the first anniversary of a truck attack in Stockholm that killed 5 people.