Suspect arrested – strong smell of decay in apartment
Updated on 05/11/2023 – 18:07Reading time: 4 min.
Explosion in a high-rise: The emergency services had previously driven to the address because of an emergency call. (Source: dpa)
There was an explosion in a high-rise building in Ratingen-West on Thursday. Several officers were injured.
The most important things at a glance
Several emergency services were injured in an explosion in Ratingen. The police are on site with a large contingent.
The explosion occurred in a high-rise building on Berliner Strasse. The police have since arrested a suspect. Officers found a dead woman in the suspect’s apartment. All information at a glance.
Reul gives an update
5:53 p.m.: 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). According to him, the injured are ten firefighters and two police officers. “It’s crazy and incomprehensible,” says Reul. “That people who ensure our safety – firefighters, police officers – go into action (…) and end up risking their lives in the truest sense of the word.”
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. But the explosion has devastating consequences.
Whether the man was still fighting back or injured by the explosion, the police and the Ministry of the Interior say nothing at first. 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. The police did not initially say whether he was injured in the explosion 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.
Nancy Faeser on explosion: “Terrible incident”
5:51 p.m.: Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) is appalled: “This is a terrible incident in which firefighters and police officers were very seriously injured. This is really something unimaginably terrible for those who work day after day for other people and for their safety. ” It’s also bad that such a terrible event happened during a routine operation.
Body found in apartment is female
5:27 p.m: Diane Dulischewski (spokeswoman for the Mettmann district police authority) told “Der Westen” that the injured emergency services were taken to nearby hospitals with rescue helicopters. “We also found a dead woman in the apartment. How she died, whether it was due to the detonation or whether there was another reason, is currently the subject of current developments.” According to BILD information, the woman is said to be the mother of the alleged perpetrator. There was a strong smell of decomposition in the apartment, according to emergency services on site.
After “explosion attack”: police union stunned
5:19 p.m.: “Police officers and firefighters are doing everything they can to save helpless people. The fact that they themselves are victims of an explosion leaves us stunned. Our thoughts are now with our injured colleagues and their families,” said the deputy national chairman of the police union (GdP) Michael Maatz.
Reul: Emergency services partly seriously and seriously injured
5:09 p.m.: During the operation on the top floor of the Ratingen high-rise building, several emergency services were injured, some seriously and seriously, as Interior Minister Reul confirmed to WDR.
Found person apparently dead for a long time
4:26 p.m.: According to dpa information, the person found dead in the house should have died a long time ago. The identity of the body is not yet known.
The alleged perpetrator is known to the police
4:02 p.m.: According to information from t-online, Interior Minister Herbert Reul said in the interior committee that the alleged perpetrator had left evidence on social media that he was part of the Corona denial scene. There are police reports about him.
Body found in apartment
3:25 p.m.: After the suspect was arrested, a body was found in his apartment. This was reported by North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) on Thursday in the interior committee of the Düsseldorf state parliament.
