Enlarge image
Building L201 on the Lichtwiese campus of the TU Darmstadt: seven employees and students complained of symptoms of intoxication
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / dpa
There has been horror and uncertainty at the Technical University of Darmstadt since an alleged poison attack occurred there on Monday.
The Hessian State Criminal Police Office seized food on campus that was said to have caused severe symptoms of poisoning in at least seven people.
There is an initial suspicion of attempted murder.
The police set up a homicide squad with 40 employees called »Light«.
What happened?
On Monday lunchtime, seven students and employees of the Technical University of Darmstadt complained about symptoms of poisoning.
Six of them had to be taken to clinics with symptoms such as malaise and bluish discoloration on their arms or legs.
A 30-year-old student was initially in a life-threatening condition.
According to the police, he is doing better now.
The Technical University of Darmstadt stated that all those affected have now been discharged from the hospital.
The majority of those allegedly poisoned were academic employees of the university who were in building L2 | 01 of the materials and geosciences department on the Lichtwiese campus.
The police moved out on a large-scale operation.
The »L201« building was evacuated and closed until further notice.
Rescue forces searched the premises and took samples of beverages and food.
The university's presidium issued an urgent warning via Twitter against the consumption of all food that was stored in the rooms at the time of the crime.
On Tuesday night, the police searched other buildings on campus.
But no relevant objects were found, it said.
Also, no other people with symptoms of poisoning would have reported.
Which substances are you talking about?
The investigators so far assume that milk cartons and water containers have been mixed with harmful substances.
According to the spokesman for the Technical University, opened and contaminated milk cartons were found in more than two freely accessible tea kitchens.
Toxins were also found in commercially available water filters, TU spokesman Jörg Feuck told SPIEGEL.
With the administration of an antidote, the emergency doctor quickly managed to provide relief for the allegedly poisoned.
Specialists from the Hessian State Criminal Police Office examined the food seized at the crime scene.
Attorney General Robert Hartmann said at a press conference that harmful and potentially fatal substances had been detected.
However, he could not name them "for tactical reasons of investigation, because it is about perpetrator knowledge".
The police in southern Hesse asked possible witnesses to report:
What is the background?
So far, nothing is known about possible backgrounds or motives for the crime.
"We are investigating in all directions," a spokesman for the public prosecutor told SPIEGEL.
Only after interviewing the victims will we know more.
"We haven't received any threatening letters or anything like that in advance," said the university spokesman.
He did not want to speculate about the question of whether there were conflicts in parts of the student body or among teachers.
It is still unclear whether the university employees concerned had a special relationship with one another.
There are currently semester breaks.
"However, there are still series of tests running in the laboratories because we want to continue research within the framework of the corona measures," said Fauck.
That is why the seven injured were on site.
There has never been a similar case at the university and probably in all of Hesse.
How do university management and politics react?
"We are very relieved that the last two people affected can now be discharged home from the clinic," says spokesman Fauck.
"The incident is a severe blow to an open institution like TU Darmstadt."
The president of the university, Tanja Brühl, also spoke up: "We are shocked by the obvious crime that has occurred at our university," she said on Tuesday.
She will contact those affected as soon as possible, "if her condition allows it."
According to the TU Chancellor Manfred Efinger, the university also wants to offer psychological help.
"Of course the employees are concerned, worried."
"The news of the incident hit me," said the Hessian Science Minister Angela Dorn.
»I wish those affected all the best, a speedy recovery and assure you of my full support.
Now it is important that we clarify the incident together with the university and the investigating authorities as quickly as possible. "
Similar incidents
There are always poison attacks in the workplace.
In Bad Nauheim, Hesse, a nurse apparently mixed sedatives and sleeping pills in biscuits baked by himself for colleagues.
They suffered from dizziness or even passed out.
The district court of Giessen sentenced the woman in May of last year to three years in prison for dangerous bodily harm.
In the community of Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock in North Rhine-Westphalia, a man poisoned his colleagues' sandwiches with a mix of lead, mercury and cadmium compounds.
In March 2019, the Bielefeld Regional Court sentenced him to life imprisonment and subsequent preventive detention for attempted murder.
One of his victims died in January 2020 after years of persistent vegetative state.
ala / dpa / AFP
