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Blown up ATM in Göttingen (archive photo from March 11, 2021): 500 "completed and attempted crimes"
Photo: Stefan Rampfel / dpa
According to a report, around 450 ATMs have been blown up in Germany so far this year.
This was a record high for this crime, as the “Welt am Sonntag” reported.
The newspaper referred to participants in the conference of interior ministers (IMK), which took place in Munich until Friday.
Accordingly, fewer machines were blown up in previous years: 414 in 2020 and 381 in 2021. Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) spoke of 500 "completed and attempted offenses" nationwide this year.
The crimes are now increasingly being committed with explosives, the newspaper writes.
This is a new and worrying development: criminals used to use gas mixtures for attacks.
According to the report, the deeds have dramatic consequences: "Pedestrians have already been injured, metal parts smashed into children's rooms and houses were no longer habitable," said Oliver Huth, chairman of the Association of German Criminal Investigators (BDK) in North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the current development in Germany is being accelerated by a displacement effect from the Netherlands: almost two thirds of the suspects registered by the Federal Criminal Police Office in 2020 and 2021 come from the neighboring country.
Because most Dutch ATMs are now equipped with paint bags or other security mechanisms, the automat crashers moved their raids to Germany years ago.
According to the newspaper, Minister Pistorius threatened to oblige banks by law to better protect their machines.
Europol had already declared in October that the explosions were increasing in Europe and were becoming more and more dangerous.
The police department is very concerned about the increasing violence, said a spokeswoman: "Extremely heavy explosives are being used more and more often, even buildings collapse and innocent people are killed."
jpz/dpa