New climate protest: environmental activists make fake emergency calls

Created: 12/21/2022 2:27 p.m

Several alleged emergency calls kept the police in Essen on their toes on Tuesday.

But these were fake emergency calls from climate activists.

Essen – A person covered in blood, a gas leak and a burglary with armed perpetrators.

The police in Essen (NRW) were called several times on Tuesday evening to alleged emergencies.

It then turned out that these were fake emergency calls made by climate activists.

State security is now investigating.

The police and fire brigade had repeatedly dispatched emergency services to the alleged emergencies (symbolic images/IDZRW montage).

© Tim Oelbermann/Imago & onw-images/Imago

Essen: Climate activists use emergency call app for fake emergency calls

As reported by the Essen police, the emergency calls were made on Tuesday evening via the Nora emergency call app.

At around 8 p.m., an alleged emergency call was initially received, in which there was talk of a gas leak in a residential building and a person covered in blood on a street in the Frintrop district of Essen.

Fire brigade and police moved out.

"At the scene, however, the officials did not find anyone injured, nor could a gas leak be detected," reports the police.

The fire brigade and police control centers received another message via the chat function in the emergency call app, reports 24RHEIN.

Police said: "You thought it was an emergency, but the real emergency - the impending climate catastrophe - which will kill millions of people is being consistently ignored by our politicians.

We will continue this form of protest until our federal government enacts effective legislation to prevent climate catastrophe.”

Fake emergency calls from climate activists: State protection determined

In the next few hours there were more fake emergency calls in Essen.

Once an alleged burglary with armed perpetrators was reported.

Another case involved an alleged gas leak.

"In all cases, a large number of rescue workers were dispatched to the respective locations.

These were not available for possible other operational situations at the time," emphasizes the police.

State security has now started investigating the cases.

Because: Misuse of the emergency call app is Nora is just as punishable as calling the emergency numbers 110 and 112. According to initial findings, a group of climate activists from southern Germany could be responsible.

The police have not yet given any further details.

In the past few weeks and months, protest actions by climate activists in Germany have increased massively.

Roads are often blocked, for example in Cologne at the end of November.

But Berlin Airport has also been a target for the activists.