There was an explosion in a high-rise building in Ratingen-West. Several people were injured, including police officers.
Several people were injured in an explosion in an apartment in a high-rise building in Ratingen near Düsseldorf. According to preliminary findings, ten firefighters and two police officers were injured, some of them very seriously. This was reported by North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) on Thursday in the interior committee of the Düsseldorf state parliament. According to information from t-online, he will personally drive to Ratingen during the day.
When asked by t-online, the Düsseldorf police said that according to the current state of knowledge, only emergency services were injured. New information was just being gathered and will be published shortly.
Police are said to have removed the perpetrators from the crime scene
After the explosion at around 11.15 a.m. on Berliner Strasse, numerous special police forces were deployed. Officials cordoned off the site over a wide area, as a dpa reporter reported on Thursday afternoon. Armed police officers entered the building. Snipers also positioned themselves accordingly.
According to a press and deployment photographer in the short message service Twitter, emergency services removed the alleged perpetrator from the building. The Düsseldorf police could neither confirm nor deny this when asked by t-online.
The emergency services had previously been called there by an emergency call because of a “helpless person”, said a police spokesman. Background and the cause of the explosion initially remained unclear.
Tenant’s son is said to have triggered an explosion
The “Bild” newspaper reports that petrol was spilled in the apartment. When the emergency services wanted to open the door, there was a serious explosion. According to information from the dpa, the homeowners’ association notified the police at around ten in the morning because a resident’s mailbox was overflowing.
In order to open the door to the apartment in question, in which a mother is said to live with her son, the police called in the fire brigade. There was a fire in the apartment, and the tenant’s son then triggered a detonation with an object that was not yet known.
Videos of the burning skyscraper can be seen on Twitter, on which shot-like noises can be heard. When asked by t-online, the Düsseldorf police can neither confirm nor deny that there were shots.
More information coming soon.
