As of: November 9th, 2023 2:15 p.m
After threats to teachers at two Hamburg schools on Wednesday, police temporarily arrested another boy. All five suspects are now at large again.
The 13-year-old is suspected of having been present in the incident at the Blankenese district school, police said in Hamburg on Thursday. That’s why the apartment where the 13-year-old lives was searched on Wednesday evening. The public prosecutor’s office had obtained a corresponding search warrant. A third toy gun was also found there. A total of five boys have now been arrested by the police and processed for identification purposes. Following the police measures, they were handed over to the care of their legal guardians.
Teachers at two schools threatened
On Wednesday afternoon, two boys threatened a teacher with some kind of weapon in a classroom at a district school in 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 in the afternoon at the Mendelssohnstrasse school in the Bahrenfeld district. An educational force there was threatened. A short time later, civilian police investigators were able to arrest four boys there, an 11-year-old, two 12-year-olds and a 14-year-old. Two toy guns were also seized from them. Initially, the police said the 11-year-old was a 13-year-old. One of the 12-year-olds and the 13-year-old who was later arrested are suspected of being responsible for the threat in Blankenese.
Major police operation in Blankenese
In the Blankenese district school on Frahmstrasse, a teacher in an 8th grade classroom was threatened with a gun by two young people or children in front of students in the morning, a police spokesman said on Wednesday. The two boys are said to have aimed at the teacher. According to police, they then left the classroom and fled in an unknown direction. It is still unclear whether these are students from the Blankenese district school. The school principal alerted the police after the incident. A large contingent searched the school. The search was unsuccessful. It was only after more than four hours that the police gave the all-clear. Nobody got hurt. A total of 400 police officers were on duty. A police helicopter circled over the scene for hours.
School cleared
Shortly before the fourth lesson, the director asked the children, young people and teachers to lock themselves in the classrooms. Armed emergency services then combed the school room by room and escorted students out of the buildings.
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“A few started crying”
The people who were still in the building were taken to a collection point. Many worried parents were already waiting at the assembly point set up at the Reich President Ebert Barracks. “I was in a meeting and got the call from my daughter crying,” said one father. The teacher organized karaoke with the children to distract them. One student described how she was in the music room when the announcement came to lock herself in and stay quiet. “A few people just started crying,” she said after being welcomed by her father.
Slightly different lessons the day after
There are around 1,150 students and more than 120 teachers at the Blankenese district school. Classes resumed there on Thursday morning. At 10 a.m. the students gathered in their classes. According to the school authorities, the children and young people were also looked after and advised by the crisis intervention team and school psychologists from the regional education and advice center. In this respect, it was “certainly not a ‘normal’ teaching day, but rather shaped by yesterday’s events,” said an authority spokesman.
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