Fires and attacks in Essen – suspect arrested – politics

The police in Essen are investigating the background to two fires on Saturday afternoon that left around 30 people injured, including eight seriously injured children. A 41-year-old was arrested. A police spokesman said he was a suspect in relation to the two fires. He is also suspected of having driven a delivery truck into two stores a few minutes later.

The police are investigating the connection between the crimes, as the police announced. At first nothing could be said about the suspect’s motives. The Essene with Syrian nationality was uninjured. According to the fire department, 31 people were injured – twelve in the first fire and 19 in the second fire shortly afterwards. Eight children were seriously injured in the first fire, including two small children who sustained life-threatening injuries.

According to preliminary information, they are two and four years old, said a fire department spokesman. Eleven people were seriously but not life-threateningly injured in the other fire. All injuries were caused by smoke from the fire. This is particularly dangerous for small children; their lungs would immediately be severely damaged by the hot smoke. The two small children were taken to special clinics. All injured people were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Residents kept children out of the windows

According to the information, the fires broke out in quick succession shortly after 5 p.m. in two apartment buildings in the Altenessen and Stoppenberg districts. The fire brigade brought people out of the houses to safety, some of them using ladders, because the stairwells were no longer passable due to the fire. Before the rescue workers arrived, neighbors had already put construction managers on the wall of one of the houses. But these were too short, said the fire department spokesman. “But that meant that when we arrived there were already people hanging on the windows, keeping children out.” The situation was “dramatic”.

The firefighters then initially laid out a jumping pad, but it was not used. At the peak, around 160 emergency services were involved. Two large fires that have to be fought in parallel are also a challenge for a large city like Essen. The operation lasted about an hour and a half.

The alleged perpetrator drove into two stores in a delivery truck

The 41-year-old arrested man is also suspected of having driven a van into two shops in the Katernberg district. One of them was a fruit and vegetable shop. According to police, no one was injured. According to the police spokesman, it was initially unclear whether the two shops were closed at the time of the crime. The man was arrested near these two shops.

The spokesman did not want to comment on reports that the man had threatened someone with a knife and a machete. In this context, videos from social networks are currently being evaluated. “They are currently being viewed and checked to see to what extent they are related to the crime, to what extent this is the suspect and what exactly the background is,” said the spokesman.

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