The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Essen: Police are looking for plans to attack schools based on the suspect's motive

2022-05-12T16:13:45.044Z


The SEK found bomb-making materials and a crossbow with arrows: the police apparently prevented an attack on two schools in Essen. The investigators are now looking for the motive of the 16-year-old suspect.


Enlarge image

Entrance to the secondary school in Essen-Borbeck: »Every corner of the classroom is being turned inside out«

Photo: Fabian Strauch / dpa

The emergency services arrived early in the morning, just before four thirty.

They searched the room of the 16-year-old high school student in Essen-Borbeck.

The boy's parents were in the apartment - and watched as their son was arrested.

What the officers found in the apartment: bomb-making materials, 16 tubular bodies.

Some had clocks attached, others prepared with nails.

Officers also discovered a homemade rifle and crossbow with arrows.

And racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim writings.

"The NRW police may have prevented a nightmare today," said Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) at a press conference in the afternoon.

The 16-year-old is suspected of having planned attacks at his and another school.

»Functional but not operational«

According to information from the Düsseldorf Attorney General, the officials are investigating on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state, preparing an explosive device and violating the Explosives Act and the Weapons Act.

According to Herbert Reul, the material seized is said to have been “functional but not operational”.

Accordingly, the youth had the materials for a bomb, but no ready-made explosive device capable of igniting.

From police circles it is said that there are indications of a possible right-wing extremist attitude of the young person.

This is probably what the records suggest: they glorify National Socialism or agitate against »people of color«.

So far, there is apparently no evidence that the suspect was active in right-wing or right-wing extremist circles.

However, the investigators are still at the beginning of their investigation.

It is still unclear whether the suspect had a political motive.

The police in Essen told SPIEGEL that the student's parents were on site and being questioned.

According to the public prosecutor's office, a decision will be made on Friday whether an arrest warrant will be issued against the 16-year-old.

Someone from the “social environment”, but not the suspect’s family environment, is said to have given the police the decisive clue.

This person told the police that the 16-year-old wanted to plant a bomb in his school, it said.

The 16-year-old's school, the Don-Bosco-Gymnasium in Essen, reacted quickly and canceled classes around half past seven in the morning.

This news did not reach all students in time, hundreds stood in front of closed doors.

A total of 123 police officers searched the suspect's high school and former secondary school with ten explosives detection dogs over the course of the day.

"Every corner of the classroom is being turned inside out," said Reul.

"Urgent cry for help from a desperate young man"

According to the interior minister, there were indications that the young person had “massive mental health problems and suicidal thoughts”.

His notes could therefore also be read as an "urgent call for help from a desperate young man," said Reul.

At the moment there are no indications of accomplices.

Ruhr Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck was dismayed: "The suspicion that a student wanted to carry out an attack there by force of arms scares me just as much as it does the students, teachers, parents, neighbors and everyone else who is affected," Overbeck explained in a statement by the diocese of Essen.

They want to "support the police in the investigation and help the school community to process the events as well as possible".

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst tweeted: "The horror of the prevented attack in Essen runs deep." Wüst thanked the police and the whistleblower about the attack plans.

»The whistleblower and our police officers have probably prevented a terrible act and a terrible tragedy with their consistent actions.«

The exact background must now be clarified.

»Xenophobia, extremism and violence have no place here in North Rhine-Westphalia.

As a state and as a society, we oppose right-wing terror with all determination.«

kha/dpa

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2022-05-12

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-13T15:52:24.974Z
News/Politics 2024-02-29T06:44:25.932Z
News/Politics 2024-02-29T05:04:36.086Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.