North Rhine-Westphalia
Explosion during routine use: emergency services seriously injured
After the explosion in a high-rise building in Ratingen, the police found a body. photo
© David Young/dpa
It begins as a routine operation – but ends tragically for many firefighters and police officers. Several firefighters are injured in an explosion. Special forces find a body.
The horror can be seen in the police officers and firefighters: Several of their colleagues were injured when there was suddenly a huge explosion during what was supposed to be a routine operation – probably triggered by the 57-year-old, whom the emergency services actually wanted to help. A police spokesman describes a “ball of fire” coming towards them.
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 man after a grueling operation. The helpers later found a body in his apartment. It is not yet known who it is. The person is said to have been dead for a long time.
“It’s crazy and incomprehensible,” says Reul. “That people who ensure our safety – firefighters, police officers – go into action […] and in the end, in the truest sense of the word, risk their lives.” According to him, the injured were ten firefighters and two police officers. Police spokesman Raimund Dockter later spoke of seven seriously injured firefighters and two critically injured police officers. The public prosecutor’s office is now investigating of an attempted homicide.”So many injured colleagues, it doesn’t leave you indifferent,” says a local police officer in a hushed voice.
Was it a targeted attack?
The information provided by the authorities was initially a bit confused 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. They wanted to help. 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.
From the point of view of the Düsseldorf police spokesman, “it is obvious” that the man triggered the explosion on purpose. He ripped open the apartment door. “There was an explosion immediately, immediately, so a fireball came towards the colleagues from the fire brigade and police.” With devastating consequences.
A large-scale operation began in the residential area with many simple 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 now 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. The police and the Ministry of the Interior initially said nothing about whether the man still resisted. With serious injuries, wrapped in a rescue blanket and wearing a breathing mask, the man was finally taken out of the house and to an ambulance. Police did not say whether he was injured in the blast or during the arrest.
Speculations are circulating locally that the emergency services may have been lured into a trap. These rumors are not officially confirmed or denied by the police and the Interior Ministry.
There is a body in the apartment
When the danger is averted and the emergency services can take a closer look at the apartment, they find a corpse. Due to their condition, the emergency services are certain that the person found dead died a long time ago. There was a strong smell of decomposition in the apartment, they report. It is not yet known who the dead person is. Now it is also checked how she died. According to the authorities, the 57-year-old lived with his mother in the apartment.
The emergency services now hope above all that their injured comrades will all recover. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) was also thinking about the injured. “This is truly something unimaginably horrible for those who work every day to help other people and keep them safe.”