Man steers car into town hall in Germany, fire breaks out
A middle-aged man steered his car into the town hall in Verden, northern Germany on Sunday. A fire broke out and severely damaged the building. The cause of the incident is under investigation, but authorities have ruled out a terrorist attack.
It’s believed that the incident, which involved a 47-year-old male, was directed against the government in Lower Saxony, DPA reported.
Mann fährt mit Auto in das Rathaus von Verden. Hintergründe unklar, aber Polizei schließt Terror aus https://t.co/wQ6nJR4AX6@HNA_online jed pic.twitter.com/m0uGkmePCu
— dpa (@dpa) 9 апреля 2017 г.
“A terrorist attack has been ruled out,” police said. It took firefighters about an hour and a half to put out the blaze.
“The flames spread to adjacent rooms on the ground floor [of the town hall],” police reported.
No one was injured in the incident, which took place early on Sunday. The man was arrested at the scene.
Police said that while his “motives are still unclear, they most likely seem to be related to personal matters.”
Europe has been shaken recently by vehicle-based terrorist attacks against pedestrians.
A truck sped down Drottninggatan in Stockholm before plowing into a group of people, killing four and injuring 15 others on Friday. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said all details indicated the incident was a “terrorist attack.”
An attacker driving at high speed rammed a rented vehicle into pedestrians walking along the footpath on Westminster Bridge in London, killing four people on March 22. One police officer was also fatally stabbed by the perpetrator.
And in December last year, a Tunisian refugee, Anis Amri, smashed a stolen truck through a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people.
While in July 2016, an attacker in Nice, France rammed a truck into pedestrians during Bastille Day celebrations, killing 86 people and injuring scores more.
