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Car destroyed after manhole cover thrown: Two injured, one of them life-threatening
Photo:
Clemens Heidrich / dpa
After the manhole cover was thrown onto the A7 motorway near Hildesheim with two seriously injured people, the suspect was taken into custody.
At the request of the public prosecutor's office, a judge issued a pre-trial arrest warrant against a 50-year-old man on Sunday, the public prosecutor's office and the police said.
The man was arrested the same day.
On Saturday night, two manhole covers and stones were thrown from a bridge onto the A7 near Hildesheim.
One of the manhole covers had hit a moving car and smashed through the windshield.
The 52-year-old driver was seriously injured, his 43-year-old passenger even life-threatening.
Rescue workers treated the two injured people from Baden-Württemberg and took them to a hospital.
According to the police, the 43-year-old was out of danger on Saturday afternoon.
The second manhole cover and stones landed in the northbound oncoming lane and damaged at least four vehicles there, some as they drove past and some as a result of objects being run over
According to a police spokeswoman, the manhole covers were thrown off a bridge on Saturday night that runs over the autobahn between the towns of Hasede and Asel north of Hildesheim.
The police used several patrol cars, and a helicopter was also used.
In the immediately initiated search, the 50-year-old man from the Hildesheim district was identified and arrested as a suspect.
The "Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung" reported that the man had been busy with the authorities for years.
According to the report, he was already in court in 2016 for a whole series of crimes in Hildesheim – according to which he stole newspaper packages and bicycles over and over again for months, and he is also said to be responsible for damage to property at an elementary school.
There he is said to have stolen or hidden manhole covers several times.
According to the report, the 50-year-old with a criminal record said at the time that inner voices had ordered him to commit the crimes.
He was sentenced to one year in prison without parole.
Forensic specialists secured evidence at the scene of the crime on the Autobahn on Saturday morning.
An expert was also called in.
The autobahn between Hanover and Kassel was therefore blocked in both directions between the autobahn triangle Hannover-Süd and Hildesheim-Drispenstedt until the afternoon.
There was a traffic jam.
The two manhole covers, which weigh several kilograms, and the stones were secured and are to be examined for traces.
According to initial findings, the manhole covers came from an industrial area in Harsum in the Hildesheim district.
A homicide commission was set up to investigate further.
feb/dpa/AFP
