Carnival balance
Rose Monday largely without incident – irritant gas injured eleven people
Police officers patrol the route of the Rose Monday parade in Düsseldorf
© Federico Gambarini / DPA
Hundreds of thousands of people in costumes celebrated Carnival on Rose Monday. It remained peaceful. But the day was not without incident: two young men were fatally injured by a car, irritant gas was released at a party and there were bomb threats in Bochum.
In the Ruhr area, the two carnival parades in Bochum-Höntrop and Bochum-Linden began late due to a threat. According to DPA information, the threat was an email distributed on social media that threatened “booby traps.” The police said there were “intensive police measures” after receiving the threat.
Fatal accident: 18 and 20 year olds hit by car
In Weilerswist near Cologne, two young men were hit by a car and fatally injured on their way home from a carnival party on Sunday evening. The two men, aged 18 and 20, were walking on an unlit country road, the police said on Monday. The 33-year-old driver of the car was no longer able to react in time and hit the two of them. He suffered shock, as did several witnesses to the accident.
A police spokesman said carnivalists had been walking along the country road all day long. The route leads from the main town of Weilerswist to the district of Metternich, where a large carnival parade took place on Sunday. The celebration then continued in the festival tent on the village square. Many people from Weilerswist used the well-developed footpath and cycle path along the country road; the footpath is separated from the road by a small piece of meadow and is therefore actually harmless.
But when the two young men were on their way home shortly before midnight, according to the investigation, they were not walking on the footpath, but on the lane of the country road. Cars are allowed to drive at 100 kilometers per hour there and there are no street lights. The police spokesman said how fast the driver was traveling is still being determined.
Rose Monday
Olaf Scholz as a sloth: Pictures from the carnival in Cologne and Düsseldorf
In another accident between a car and a coach in Hesse, 14 people were injured, including a two-year-old who was critically injured, the police headquarters in Southeast Hesse announced on Monday evening. According to the information, the accident occurred at midday in Seligenstadt when a young driver wanted to turn. She apparently overlooked the bus, which was on the way to a Rose Monday parade with 36 people on board.
Irritant gas at carnival celebrations in North Rhine-Westphalia
According to police, the woman’s two-year-old son was critically injured and taken to a clinic by rescue helicopter. His four-year-old brother and his mother were also injured and taken to the hospital. According to officials, eleven people who were on board the coach were also injured.
Another incident occurred in Rheinbach-Wormersdorf in North Rhine-Westphalia: Eleven people were slightly injured by irritant gas at a celebration after a Rose Monday parade. As a police spokesman said on Tuesday morning, the carnival event took place in a sports hall with around 400 visitors. The background to the incident was initially unknown. According to initial findings, there was no argument or anything similar between the visitors that would have led to an attack with the spray. Those affected, aged between 16 and 24, suffered minor eye and respiratory irritation but did not need to be taken to hospital. The emergency services treated her on site.