As of: March 28, 2024, 1:09 p.m
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Flowers and candles lie in front of the scene of the fire in Solingen. © Christoph Reichwein/dpa
The arson in Solingen with a family killed and several injured is deeply shocking. People with a migrant background also lived in the house. A mourning rally was planned.
Solingen - According to the public prosecutor's office, people with a migrant background also lived in the Solingen apartment building that was allegedly deliberately set on fire and killed four people. “The house was undoubtedly also inhabited by migrants,” said a spokesman for the Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office on Thursday when asked. The Islamic association Ditib said in a statement on Wednesday evening that the fire had been set “in a house inhabited mostly by people with a migrant background”. The State Integration Council of North Rhine-Westphalia expressed deep concern for social coexistence.
The public prosecutor's office assumes deliberate arson and is investigating murder or attempted murder. There was no evidence of a “xenophobic motive,” it was said on Wednesday. The investigative agency assumes that the family who died - young parents, a three-year-old child and an infant - were of Bulgarian nationality. An identification was still pending. The spokesman for the public prosecutor's office added on Thursday that, as things stand, one of the seriously injured families was also Bulgarian. It is not yet possible to say whether other nationalities may be represented among the residents.
The North Rhine-Westphalia State Integration Council wrote in a statement: “This act is a further setback for our peaceful coexistence.” Even if the motive has not yet been clarified, one must suspect “racist backgrounds” behind the act, said chairman Tayfun Keltek. According to the Turkish-Islamic Union Ditib (Cologne), all but one person in the house are “Muslims of Turkish origin from Bulgaria or Turkey”. According to the Islamic association, the family killed was a “Muslim family with Bulgarian citizenship”. The local Ditib community has already started initial discussions with the bereaved.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the remains of an accelerant were found in the wooden stairwell. The search for the unknown perpetrator or perpetrators continued on Thursday. It initially remained unclear whether there was already information from the population. The public prosecutor's office initially did not comment on the question of the state of health of the injured or the exact number of those affected. According to previous information from the city of Solingen, three seriously injured people received intensive care. Investigators reported on Wednesday that five other people also suffered injuries, but less serious.
On Tuesday night, residents jumped out of the 100-year-old burning building onto the street in fear of death. The family of four had lived in the attic and died in the flames. In memory of the victims and as a sign of solidarity, there should be a mourning rally in front of the fire house in the Höhscheid district of Solingen late on Thursday afternoon (5 p.m.). The Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which supports initiatives against right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism, called for this at short notice.
The catastrophic fire awakened bad memories for many people: in May 1993, five women and girls of Turkish origin from the Genç family were murdered in Solingen in a nighttime arson attack with a right-wing extremist background. The attack marked the low point of a wave of racist attacks on people of foreign origin in Germany. According to the integration chairman's assessment, the “social mood regarding racism and right-wing extremism has not improved significantly” since the atrocity in 1993. dpa