Castrop-Rauxel.
Many residents are on the street, two men are taken away at midnight: This is how the anti-terrorist operation in Castrop-Rauxel went.
Shortly before midnight on Sunday night, the calm in the Habinghorst district of Castrop-Rauxel is over. More and more police and fire brigade cars are driving through the district, stopping in Lange Straße, which is shorter than the name suggests. “We thought there was a fire,” two teenagers recall the next afternoon in a nearby burger restaurant. Do not do it. The forces are in an anti-terror operation. “Who thinks of something like that?” says one of the boys.
Target of the emergency services: house number 71
The target of the emergency services that night is house number 71. There is a hairdresser on the ground floor of the building, which appears to have been renovated not too long ago, and a fitness studio is right next door. As soon as the emergency services are on site, a SEK squad in special suits storms through a large gray gate to the first floor, where the police break open a wooden door.
T-shirt, underpants and slippers
The residents are apparently surprised while they are sleeping and offer no resistance. Minutes later, two men are taken away under the eyes of the many residents who have come out of their homes curiously. One wears only a T-shirt, underpants and slippers, a winter jacket over a shirtless upper body, knee-length sports trousers and sneakers with open shoelaces, the man who was assigned the task. They are sprayed with a liquid in front of a fire engine, then taken under strict surveillance to a decontamination route that the Castrop-Rauxel fire brigade set up in front of the station on Saturday.
It’s about “biological warfare weapons”
A little later, the police confirmed what the many emergency services in the yellow and gray protective suits and with “self-contained breathing apparatus” had already guessed. It’s about poison, more precisely about cyanide and ricin and thus about “biological weapons of war”.
Neighbors in Castrop-Rauxel: A man “who doesn’t cause any stress”
Soon there will also be information about the two arrested people. The man with the jacket, the suspect, is a 32-year-old Iranian who has been living in Germany for a good seven years. Neighbors describe him as “quiet” and he is not “one who causes stress”. The second man, confirmed Holger Heming, senior public prosecutor at the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office on Sunday, is his brother. To what extent he was privy to possible attack plans is not yet clear.
Specialists in biological and chemical hazards on the job
The two suspects have long since been taken away, but the night operation continues. Police officers search the suspect’s apartment, supported by experts on biological and chemical hazards from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and specialists from the Analytical Task Forces (ATF) in Dortmund and Essen, which are equipped with highly sensitive measurement technology. As a precaution, what they secure is placed in large blue drums and also ends up in the decontamination line.
Death occurs with ricin after two days
The caution is justified. Ricin is one of the most toxic proteins found in nature. It blocks an important enzyme, which quickly paralyzes the metabolism. Fever attacks, vomiting and colic are the typical symptoms. In the case of poisoning, death usually occurs after two to three days, and there is no antidote. The substance gained notoriety through the London “umbrella attack” in 1978, in which the Bulgarian dissident Georgy Markov died after a tiny metal ball of ricin was rammed into his leg over an umbrella.
Castrop-Rauxel: Major operations leave no traces
Quiet returned to Langen Strasse on Sunday afternoon. A window of the stormed apartment is tilted, the apartment door has been provisionally repaired. Otherwise, the large-scale operation at night left no visible traces. With wind, cool temperatures and sometimes heavy rain showers, the sidewalks are almost deserted.
A tip that probably came from the FBI
How far possible attack plans had progressed is unclear. No poison was found in the suspect’s apartment, the Düsseldorf public prosecutor said early Sunday afternoon. However, “storage media” have been secured, which are now being evaluated. That could take “weeks”. The man was tracked down by a tip from a “friend of the secret service”. According to information from “Bild”, it is said to have been the FBI. (with dpa)
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