Hamburg
Threat with toy weapon: Police arrest fifth child after large-scale operation at schools
Heavily armed special forces on duty at a district school in Hamburg-Blankenese on Wednesday afternoon
© Bodo Marks / DPA
Threats at two Hamburg schools led to a major police operation on Wednesday. Five young suspects have now been temporarily arrested.
After the threats at two Hamburg schools on Wednesday, the police temporarily arrested another boy. The 13-year-old is suspected of having been present in the incident at the district school in Hamburg-Blankenese, the police said in Hamburg on Thursday. This suspicion became more concrete during the course of the investigation. That’s why the apartment where the 13-year-old lives was searched that evening. The public prosecutor’s office had obtained a corresponding search warrant.
A third toy gun was found there. This means that five boys have now been arrested by the police and processed for identification purposes. The youngest of them is 11 years old. Following the police measures, they were handed over to the care of their legal guardians.
Hamburg: Two boys trigger a major police operation at school
On Wednesday afternoon, two boys threatened a teacher with some kind of firearm in a classroom at a district school in Hamburg-Blankenese, triggering a large-scale police operation. It was only after four hours that the emergency services were able to give the all-clear. Almost at the same time, there was another alarm about a threat situation at another school in the Bahrenfeld district. Here too, an educational force was threatened.
A short time later, the police were able to arrest four boys aged 11, 12, 12 and 14 and seize two suspected toy weapons. Initially the police spoke of a 13-year-old. But it was an 11-year-old. A 12-year-old and a 13-year-old, who was later arrested, are suspected of being responsible for the threat in Blankenese.
The police spokesman was initially unable to say whether and to what extent the children had already commented on the allegations. For reasons of privacy, among other things, the content of possible conversations with 11 to 14 year olds would not be published.
The background to the threat remains unclear
Meanwhile, school operations at the Blankenese district school resumed later on Thursday morning. The children and young people were also looked after and advised by the crisis intervention team and school psychologists from the regional education and counseling center, as the school authorities announced upon request. “In this respect, this will certainly not be a “completely normal” teaching day, but will be shaped by yesterday’s events,” said a spokesman for the authorities.
The investigations into the two threat cases are now continuing. In the course of this, it will also be checked how high the costs were for the large-scale operation and whether they have to be borne by the children or their legal guardians.
It initially remained unclear why the children threatened the teachers. The background to the crime is now the subject of further investigations. The major police operation was the second in just a few days, following the 18-hour hostage-taking at Hamburg airport.