The Düsseldorf police assume that a 57-year-old deliberately triggered an explosion in the Rating high-rise building, seriously injuring several people. “It’s obvious,” said Düsseldorf police spokesman Raimund Dockter. An emergency call led the emergency services to the high-rise building on Thursday. They had been called because there was concern about a resident of the high-rise building because her mailbox was overflowing. When the police and fire brigade were standing in front of her apartment door, her 57-year-old son suddenly ripped it open, the police spokesman reported.
“There was an explosion immediately, immediately, so a fireball came towards the colleagues from the fire brigade and police.” As a result, a 25-year-old policewoman and a 29-year-old policeman were life-threatening and seven firefighters were seriously injured. According to the police’s current knowledge, the detonation was triggered by a German national who lived in the apartment with his mother. It is possible that the man wanted to lure the emergency services into an ambush, but cannot be confirmed at this time, Dockter said. Police later found a female body in the apartment.
The deed happened in this high-rise building.
(Photo: ROBERTO PFEIL/AFP)
The public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf is investigating an attempted homicide. “Further investigations must show whether it is attempted manslaughter or attempted murder and in how many cases,” said a spokeswoman. In addition, it is being checked how the person found dead in the suspect’s apartment died, said the spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office. According to information from the German Press Agency, she died a long time ago.
Many of the backgrounds to the incident in Ratingen near Düsseldorf are still unclear. The man was “mentally in the corona denier environment,” says North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU). Research on social media revealed that. Special forces arrested the 57-year-old after a grueling operation. “It’s crazy and incomprehensible,” said Reul. “That people who ensure our safety – firefighters, police officers – go into action […] and end up risking their lives in the truest sense of the word.”
“So many injured colleagues, it doesn’t leave you cold,” said a local police officer. The authorities differed as to who exactly had alerted the emergency services on Thursday morning and why. It is clear that the fire brigade and police assumed that there could be people in need in the apartment. But when they wanted to open the door, the 57-year-old triggered a detonation with an object that had not yet been identified, Reul reported. Whether it was a targeted attack, he could not say.
The special forces of the police move back after the operation in Ratingen.
(Photo: BENJAMIN WESTHOFF/REUTERS)
But the explosion had devastating consequences. A large-scale operation began in the residential area with many high-rise buildings. Dozens of ambulances, emergency doctors, fire engines and police vehicles were added. Special forces secured the entire high-rise building. Thick smoke was billowing from the apartment. Snipers positioned themselves on the balconies of the apartments across the street. Finally access. Special forces went into the apartment and arrested the 57-year-old.
When the emergency services were able to inspect the apartment more closely, they found the body. Due to her condition, the emergency services assume that the person died a long time ago. There was a strong smell of decay in the apartment, they reported. Like so many other things, it was unclear who the dead person was. According to the authorities, the 57-year-old lived with his mother in the apartment.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) was thinking about the injured. “This is truly something unimaginably horrible for those who work every day to help other people and keep them safe.” NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst wrote on Twitter: “My thoughts are with the emergency services, who bravely risked their lives and are now fighting for it.” The authorities made every effort to clarify the circumstances of the incident. “We give those affected our full support.”
In the evening, the body was removed from the house. The police escorted numerous residents back into the building.