crime
Knife attack in Berlin bus: suspect arrested
Buses of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (symbol image). photo
© Monika Skolimowska/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
Two knife attacks recently shook the capital. In the case of the attack on a Berlin bus, there is a successful investigation – and an arrest warrant.
After the knife attack on a 33-year-old woman in a Berlin bus, the woman’s half-brother was arrested as a suspect. The 41-year-old was brought before a magistrate, who issued an arrest warrant, the public prosecutor said on Friday. He has not yet commented on the allegation, so the motive is currently unclear. “Bild” (online) first reported on the arrest. The search is still ongoing for the perpetrator or perpetrators who killed a taxi driver in Berlin-Grunewald on Thursday.
The 33-year-old woman was life-threateningly injured in the knife attack in a bus on Tuesday in Berlin-Wedding – in front of her two daughters. According to the police, she had to be operated on. According to a report by “BZ”, she suffered injuries to her heart, lungs and stomach, among other things. The police did not provide any information with reference to the ongoing investigation and possible knowledge of the perpetrator.
Victim no longer in mortal danger
The state of health of the 33-year-old is still critical but stable, the public prosecutor said on Friday. “There is currently no acute danger to life. However, she has not yet been heard about what happened.”
The woman was traveling by bus with her seven- and nine-year-old daughters. According to the police, the girls were not physically injured and are in the care of the family. Originally, the investigators had ruled out that the perpetrator and the victim were related.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) proposed a knife ban on buses and trains on Thursday. Knife attacks with fatalities and injuries occur again and again in both modes of transport. “We should also think about knife bans on public transport – on buses and trains. Anyone who travels by plane is not allowed to take a knife with them,” Faeser told the newspapers of the Funke media group. Support for the proposal came from Deutsche Bahn. The GdP, on the other hand, considers such a ban to be difficult to control.
Taxi driver stabbed in the neck
A 49-year-old taxi driver was killed in the Grunewald residential area of Berlin on Thursday. Despite the first rescue attempts by witnesses on site, the man later died in a hospital. According to the police, the perpetrator or perpetrators fled, the background is unclear. “Bild” and “BZ” reported that the taxi driver had been stabbed in the neck. The police did not want to give any information with reference to the ongoing investigation and possible knowledge of the perpetrator.