BERLIN: A driver plowed his car into a carnival parade in the western German town of Volkmarsen on Monday injuring 30 people, including children, some of them seriously, police said on Monday.
Regional broadcaster Hessenschau said police believed the driver, identified as a 29-year-old German citizen, had acted deliberately, but that nothing was immediately known about his motive.
German news website HNA cited witnesses as saying the man appeared to have targeted children and had driven “at full throttle” into the crowd, which had gathered for the traditional procession ahead of the Christian season of Lent.
Asked how many were injured, a police spokesman in the regional center of Kassel said: “I would say about 30.”
Police said on Twitter that some people were seriously injured, including children. Bild newspaper said a third of the injuries were serious and some were life-threatening.
Police assumed it was an attack but there were no indications that it was politically motivated, Bild said.
Police called off all carnival parades in the German state of Hesse, where Volkmarsen is located, as a precautionary measure, but said they were not aware of any danger elsewhere in Germany.
The incident comes less than a week after a man gunned down 11 people, including himself, in one of the worst racist attacks in Germany since World War Two.
Carnival is hugely popular in parts of western Germany, especially in Rhineland cities such as Cologne and Duesseldorf, where festivities peak on “Rose Monday” with tens of thousands attending street parades featuring comical or satirical floats.
Police cars and ambulances rushed to the scene in Volkmarsen, a small town in northern Hesse, 260 miles (420 km) west of Berlin.
“We are on the ground with a big deployment. An investigation is underway,” north Hesse police said on Twitter after the incident, which they said occurred at about 2:45 p.m. (1345 GMT).
Amateur pictures published online showed police officers standing next to a silver Mercedes-Benz car that appeared to have been involved.
German media said the driver deliberately broke through plastic barriers set up by police around the parade area, where 1,500 people were expected to gather.
The car had continued driving through the crowd for about 30 meters before coming to a halt, a witness told Hessenschau. Police were unable to question the driver for the time being, Welt newspaper said, without elaborating.
In 2016, a Tunisian man with Islamist militant ties plowed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people. He was later shot dead by Italian police after he fled Germany.
Car driven into German carnival parade injuring dozens
https://arab.news/5a85g
Car driven into German carnival parade injuring dozens
Philippines probes Bondi Beach suspects’ visit, downplays militant training reports
- Suspects spent 4 weeks in the Philippines last month
- Govt says no evidence visit linked to militant activity
MANILA: The Philippine National Police launched on Wednesday a probe into the recent visit to the country of a father and son whom Australian authorities have identified as suspects in last week’s mass shooting in Sydney.
Two gunmen killed 15 people and wounded dozens of others during Hanukkah celebrations at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday.
The suspected shooters, identified by Australian authorities as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram, traveled to the Philippines last month.
The news has prompted various media outlets to speculate that there are links between their visit and the Sydney attack — an allegation Manila has since denied.
The investigation launched by the Philippine police seeks to establish the purpose of the suspects’ travel and their movement while in the country.
“This matter is being investigated as we seek to determine the reason behind their visit to the Philippines. We are finding out which places they went to, who they talked to, and where they stayed while they were in the country,” Philippine National Police acting chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said in a statement.
Bureau of Immigration data shows that 50-year-old Akram and his 24-year-old son arrived in the Philippines from Sydney on Nov. 1. They left the country on Nov. 28 via a connecting flight from Davao in the southern Philippines to Manila, with Sydney as their final destination.
According to a police statement, Philippine authorities, including the government and military, said there was no evidence the trip was related to any militant activity in the country and was “not considered as a serious security concern.”
Australian media reports linking the suspects to Daesh and alleging the group used the Philippines as its training ground were denied by the Philippine government.
“Information from operating units on the ground indicates no ongoing training and recruitment,” Department of National Defense spokesperson Arsenio Andolong told Arab News.
“There is no indication of imminent domestic terrorist threats.”
Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro also dismissed the claims as “misleading” and “portraying the Philippines as a training hotspot for violent extremist groups.”
She told reporters that the National Security Council “maintained there is no confirmation to allegations that the father-and-son suspects in the recent mass shooting in Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, received training in the Philippines.”
Castro added that Philippine security forces “have significantly weakened” Daesh-affiliated groups since the 2017 Marawi siege.
The southern Philippine city in Mindanao island was in 2017 taken over by groups affiliated with Daesh. After five months of fighting and hundreds of deaths, the Philippine army reclaimed the area.
“Both UN and the US government assessments indicate that these groups now operate in a fragmented and diminished capacity,” Castro said.
“Violence in Mindanao is largely driven by historical conflicts and local clan disputes rather than the operational capacity of ISIS-affiliated organizations.”
