Enlarge image
Police operation (symbol image)
Photo: Friso Gentsch / dpa
Anyone who asks for directions and does not get a satisfactory answer usually moves on disappointed.
Not a man in Karlsruhe who is said to have hit and injured a 71-year-old woman out of rage.
The stranger asked the woman on Friday night at a tram stop for directions to a street.
The 40 to 50-year-old man apparently only understood English, but the woman did not speak that, the police said.
When a passerby couldn't help him either and the language barrier to the senior citizen turned out to be insurmountable, the man was enraged.
He attacked the woman suddenly and hit her in the face, the police said.
Then he fled and left the injured woman lying on the ground.
Senior woman had to go to the hospital
The 71-year-old was able to walk back home.
Due to the severity of her injuries to the face and upper body, the woman then had to be treated as an inpatient in the hospital.
The police were looking for the perpetrator and found several people who are considered suspects.
Now the investigators are looking for witnesses.
ptz / dpa