Large-scale operation in Leichlingen
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Masked men attack the home of Interior Minister Herbert Reul
Herbert Reul’s house in Leichlingen was the scene of an attack by strangers.
Photo: Uwe Miserius
Corpses On Sunday afternoon, a group of masked people attacked the private house of North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul in Leichlingen. The police responded with a large-scale operation and secured the house.
According to eyewitness reports, a group of 20 to 30 masked people attacked the minister’s private home at around 4 p.m. Projectiles are said to have flown into the house and pyrotechnics were also ignited. Before that, the masked people are said to have already walked through corpses and chanted slogans. After neighbors alerted the police, the strangers fled.
The background to the attack is still unclear. According to a police spokeswoman, the minister was not home that afternoon. The police pulled together a large number of hundreds from Leverkusen, Langenfeld and Solingen at the house. A helicopter was also used. The police spokeswoman said in the evening that one person was taken into custody, but then released. According to initial investigations, the new assembly law could have been an occasion for protest.
Apparently nobody was injured. At first glance, there should also have been no major damage to the minister’s house.
In the past, the home of the interior minister had repeatedly been the scene of public demonstrations. At the beginning of August 2020, around 100 mostly young people from the left-wing spectrum demonstrated at a “Forum against Police Violence & Repression” against the policies of the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of the Interior. On that day, the police had gathered a hundred at Reuls’ private house in Leichlingen to protect it against possible attacks. The protest at that time was peaceful.