Status: 09.11.2023, 18:55 PM
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Large-scale police operation in Offenburg. © Christina Häußler/Einsatz-Report24/dpa
Helicopters circle over Offenburg, sirens wail. A teenager is seriously injured with a firearm at a school in southwestern Germany and later dies. A classmate is accused of manslaughter.
Offenburg - Mourning and dismay in Offenburg in Baden: After a gun attack at a school, a student has died of his serious injuries. A suspect was arrested, the police said on Thursday.
The suspect minor, a German, is being forensically examined, the investigators said. The motive for the attack in the special education school is likely to be personal. He was to be brought before the investigating judge on Thursday. An arrest warrant for manslaughter should be issued, according to a statement from the police and the public prosecutor's office.
According to dpa information, the attack is said to have taken place in the suspect's 9th grade. According to investigators, the suspect was held by a man who happened to be present until the police arrived.
The young man had come into a classroom and fired at least one shot from a handgun at his sitting classmate of the same age. "As a result, he suffered the most serious injuries," the statement said. The victim later died in a clinic.
The intervention of the man until the arrival of the officers was a fortunate circumstance - it could have happened even more, the dpa learned from circles. The alleged perpetrator had ammunition with him. In the 9th grade, students between the ages of 15 and 16 are usually taught.
"The police quickly caught the alleged perpetrator and are investigating the background of the crime at full speed," said Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) in Stuttgart. It is assumed that a lone perpetrator was involved. Police currently have no indications of a political background to the crime.
According to the police, the school was largely cordoned off, it is located in the Nordstadt of the municipality in the Ortenau district. The officers spoke of a large-scale operation, with more than 300 police officers involved. According to police circles, a special task force (SEK) was also deployed. Support also came from other precincts and police headquarters in the region. There is no explicit mention of a rampage, said a police spokesman.
Residents reported helicopters circling over the area for hours. Sirens of emergency vehicles wailed, there was a roadblock on a major traffic axis. Offenburg, with around 62,000 inhabitants, is an important transport and economic centre in the region, but life is otherwise rather tranquil.
Around 180 students initially had to stay in the classrooms, but were later able to leave them. The young people were initially cared for by specialist staff, but were then able to return to their parents, the police reported.
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According to its own statements, the Waldbachschule is a special education and counselling centre with a focus on learning. Students are taught in 15 classes. According to the city of Offenburg, the school will remain closed on Friday.
Even hours after the crime, the school building was still cordoned off. The forensic technology was still in place, they said. Individual students are also still in school. There was an extraordinary amount of activity around the school grounds, where the Waldbach School is also located: parents picked up their children, young people were on the spot and looked at their mobile phones. Police officers made sure that only authorized people came near the school.
A grandfather, who was picking up his two granddaughters from a nearby school, was visibly shaken. "Luckily, nothing happened to them," he says with tears in his eyes. A mother, whose child attends a kindergarten directly opposite the Waldbach School, said that the little ones had not noticed anything about the incident. She had been asked to pick up her child via the daycare app.
In the north-west hall at the north end of the school grounds, there was a contact point for students and parents. There was a great rush there. Many ambulances were nearby.
Just on Wednesday, two boys in a school in Hamburg threatened a teacher with a kind of firearm and triggered a large-scale police operation. It was only after four hours that the emergency services were able to give the all-clear. Almost at the same time, there was also an alarm about a threat situation at another school. Here, too, a pedagogical force was threatened. In this context, four boys aged 11, 12, 12 and 14 and a 13-year-old were arrested a short time later and a total of three suspected toy weapons were seized. A 12-year-old and the 13-year-old are suspected of being responsible for the threat in Blankenese. Dpa