Status: 01/29/2023 5:32 p.m
After the knife attack on a train in Schleswig-Holstein, the passenger association and engine driver company are demanding more video surveillance on trains. This means that crimes cannot always be prevented, but perpetrators can be identified.
The Pro Bahn passenger association and the German train drivers’ union GDL are in favor of more safety measures on trains. The claim relates to the knife attack in a regional express in Brokstedt, Schleswig-Holstein, with two dead and several injured on Wednesday.
“We demand a nationwide expansion of video surveillance in all wagons,” said Pro-Bahn honorary chairman Karl-Peter Naumann to the “Lübecker Nachrichten”. This does not always prevent crime, but it does help to catch the perpetrators, according to Naumann. “And that is particularly important for the victims.”
On Wednesday, an attacker stabbed two people and injured five others on a regional train on the route from Kiel to Hamburg. The suspect, a stateless Palestinian, was already known to the police. The 33-year-old had been released from custody just a few days earlier.
Number of acts of violence in and on trains doubled
According to the “Lübecker Nachrichten”, the GDL wants to meet with the Schleswig-Holstein transport company Nah.SH to discuss the consequences of the attack. “We have been calling for more security measures on the trains for a long time,” said GDL district chairman Hartmut Petersen of the newspaper.
All newer regional trains that have been in use since 2015 have already installed video technology, Dennis Fiedel from Nah.SH told the “Kieler Nachrichten”. However, the RE70 in which the knife attack took place was a backup train with no video recording.
According to a report by “Bild am Sonntag”, the number of recorded acts of violence with knives on trains and in train stations has more than doubled in the past year compared to 2021. The federal police have registered 336 such acts. In trains alone, the number of registered knife attacks rose from 44 to 82.
According to the report, a total of 398,848 crimes were recorded – twelve percent more than in the previous year. Among them were 14,155 physical injuries. On the trains themselves, 82 knife attacks were counted, 97 attacks with other dangerous tools and five attacks with guns. The number of sexual offenses has increased from 697 to 857.
Faeser: “The judiciary must face this question”
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the “Bild am Sonntag”: “I understand anyone who wonders why this violent criminal was released so quickly and whether everything was done to check whether he was a danger to others.” The SPD politician again demanded that it be checked whether the man could have been expelled. The judiciary must address this question.
The rehabilitation expert Bernd Maelicke accuses the Hamburg Senator for Justice Anna Gallina in the “Hamburger Abendblatt” of having ignored the Hamburg law on rehabilitation and victim protection (ResOG) passed in 2019. The law aims to prevent ex-convicts from falling into a “release hole” as soon as the prison gates open. According to Maelicke, Gallina is responsible as a senator.