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Large-scale operation in Trier: the crime scene extends over hundreds of meters
Photo:
THILO SCHMUELGEN / REUTERS
Simeonstrasse is something like Trier's main artery.
The lively shopping street leads to the Porta Nigra, the landmark and heart of the city that was built by the Romans.
Bernd W. left a trail of devastation along this vein with a silver-gray off-road vehicle.
According to the latest police reports, at least four people are dead, including a toddler.
Several people, some seriously injured, are treated in hospitals; the two large Triers clinics, the mother house and the brothers' hospital, are almost in the city center.
Nevertheless, a collection point for the injured was set up in front of the cathedral, and some were flown out for treatment.
While doctors and nurses take care of the wounded in the hospitals, politicians express dismay at the 51-year-old's death drive.
It is “the worst of all” that today people “have lost their lives”, said the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer about the death trip in her hometown.
The SPD politician visited the injured party and expressed her condolences to the relatives of the victims.
The fact that the consequences were not even worse is probably thanks to the rapid intervention of the police.
According to State Interior Minister Roger Lewentz, Bernd W. had been arrested "four minutes after being informed".
According to a police spokesman, the driver had been "stopped by police forces" and overwhelmed.
A video clip that circulated on social media showed how policemen tied W. on the ground behind the car.
The front of the SUV was badly damaged.
Eyewitnesses reported that people were thrown through the air near the Porta Nigra.
Video images show how passers-by tend to injured people on the ground and rescue workers wave over.
Aid from all over the region are on duty.
Mayor Wolfram Leibe told how he walked through the city center after the incident.
“It was just awful.
There is a pair of sneakers and the girl with it is dead, "said the SPD politician.
"A picture of horror presented itself."
Leibe spoke of the "blackest day in Trier since the Second World War".
"I can't understand how anyone can come up with the idea of driving an SUV through town and killing people." The fatalities include a nine-month-old baby as well as a 72-year-old woman.
The day was a "really bad and terrible day for the relatives," said Prime Minister Dreyer.
In the middle of a normal day, people were torn from their lives.
"It's just very bad for all of us."
Let her thoughts go to the injured and seriously injured, and hope and pray that they survived and recovered.
Bernd W. comes from the Trier-Saarburg district and was arrested after the drive to death, the car was seized.
The police began to question W. that afternoon.
There is still no information about the motif.
The suspect had not appeared to the police in the past.
So far, the investigators have no evidence of a politically motivated background.
The Bishop of Trier Stephan Ackermann invited for the evening (8 p.m.) to pray together in the cathedral of the city.
"I am deeply shocked by the rampage that practically happened on our doorstep," said Ackermann.
Together they want to pray for the victims, their relatives, the emergency services and rescue workers and everyone who was affected by this terrible incident.
Emergency chaplains from the diocese are also on duty.
The police activated a portal for information on the Internet.
The investigators asked eyewitnesses to upload photos or videos of the crime there.
Notes and information for relatives of possible injured persons are available on 0800 6565651.
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apr / dpa