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Blue light of a police vehicle (symbol image)
Photo: Fotostand / K. Schmitt / imago images
A man died in police custody in Wuppertal.
The 25-year-old suddenly lost consciousness last Monday when a doctor took a blood sample, as the Wuppertal public prosecutor and the Hagen police announced on Sunday.
Resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful.
An autopsy showed no evidence of third-party negligence or violence.
According to the investigation, an underlying disease combined with drug use may have caused the man's death.
The police had been called early Monday morning to a physical dispute between a man and a woman in which the woman was injured.
The two were siblings.
The 25-year-old man suddenly attacked a police officer and tried to pull her to the ground.
Another officer then tried to overpower the attacker.
Only with the help of other emergency services was it possible to tie up the defending man and bring him into police custody.
On Saturday, the Greek edition of the left-wing website Indymedia published a report with a short video that apparently shows the young man's fixation.
The woman who films cries and calls out that he is still a child.
The video found its way to Germany via Twitter.
According to the police and the public prosecutor's office, two police officers were slightly injured during detention.
Since there was evidence that the 25-year-old was under the influence of drugs and alcohol, a blood sample was taken from him.
He collapsed in the process.
The police headquarters in Hagen is conducting a death investigation, which, according to the information, is not directed against the police officers deployed.
The public prosecutor's office in Wuppertal is also investigating an unknown person who is said to have left the drugs to the 25-year-old.
The Bundestag member of the Left, Martina Renner, criticized on Twitter on Sunday that the police had made known the death of the man in police custody "only under public pressure".
The "New Germany" quotes the Wuppertal public prosecutor's office as saying that an "internal emergency" with fatal consequences was not considered to be "media-relevant".
On Sunday evening there was a rally in front of the regional court in Wuppertal.
feb / AFP