31 injured, two children even in life-threatening condition – this is the toll of the revenge spree by a 41-year-old man in Essen. The fire department was on a massive operation. A detention order was issued against the suspect on Sunday for attempted murder and arson.
There were over 30 injuries in two fires in Essen (symbol image).
max./kei.
Apparently due to his wife separating from him, a 41-year-old Syrian went on a rampage in the Ruhr area city of Essen on Saturday. He is alleged to have set fires at two residential buildings and crashed a delivery van into retail stores. A total of 31 people were injured, eight of them children, as reported by the police and fire department in Essen. A detention order for attempted murder and serious arson was issued against the suspect on Sunday afternoon.
According to the police, the man was armed with an accelerant and stabbing weapons for the acts. He targeted apartments and retail locations in Essen where people supporting his wife were present. He then violently broke into the apartment buildings and stores, deliberately starting fires to kill the residents and destroy the buildings. Witnesses observed the acts. The 41-year-old was already known to the police for threats and property damage.
Two emergency calls within ten minutes
The series of crimes began on Saturday afternoon around 5:13 PM with a fire in a residential building in the Altenessen district of Essen. In their press release, the fire department reported a dramatic situation. Children were being held out of the windows on the top floor. Many people were standing at the windows engulfed in smoke, calling for help. When the fire department arrived, neighbors had already set up ladders to help people escape from the building. However, they were not long enough to reach the upper floors.
A total of twelve people were injured in the fire on Altenessener Strasse, including eight children, as reported by the fire department. Two of the children are in life-threatening condition and were taken to specialized clinics in Duisburg and Bochum.
That was not the end. Ten minutes later, the fire department received more emergency calls. The callers reported a fire in a multi-family home on Zollvereinstrasse in Essen-Stoppenberg, where people were also trapped inside the building. Nineteen people were injured from inhaling smoke in this fire and had to be taken to hospitals. Eleven of those affected are seriously injured but not in life-threatening condition.
Foreigners drive crime in Germany
A few minutes later, the same man drove a delivery van into two stores. Only property damage was caused in this incident.
In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, there were more than 6000 knife attacks last year, the highest number in years. Solingen is in the same state. Just a month ago, a Syrian stabbed three people at a city festival there.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Christian Democratic Interior Minister Herbert Reul said at the presentation of the North Rhine-Westphalian crime statistics for 2023: “Non-Germans are significantly overrepresented. And this is the case for almost all offenses. This inevitably means we must talk about foreign crime.”