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A right-wing extremist kills ten people and commits suicide

On the eve of the Altweiberfasnacht, a terrorist attack in Hanau, Hesse, resulted in eleven deaths. The gunman also died on Thursday night. A look at the crime scene.

The police secure the crime scene, while the evidence keeps secure evidence.

Michael Probst / AP

The alleged assassin from Hanau apparently wanted to leave traces: Tobias R.’s website address was sprayed on a white wall in a covered passage. It is suspected that the perpetrator himself did not leave this lettering 50 meters away from the second crime scene – but this has not yet been confirmed by the police. The second crime scene is the “Arena Bar & Café”, which is located in the shop row on the ground floor of a ten-story apartment building. In front of the door is a large parking lot for the Lidl discount supermarket located next to the house. Several people are said to have been shot in the pub, and one person in the parking lot is said to have been murdered in his silver Mercedes. The Mercedes is now protected from view by a red Hanau fire brigade tent.


Onlookers knew some victims

On the morning of this gray and rainy Thursday, on which the Indian Carnival starts in many areas in Germany, there are almost more reporters and police officers than curious people or residents in front of the scene. A 30-year-old Turk, who does not want to say his name, says that he has been to the shop several times and recognizes several victims. A murdered woman was an Afghan, whose brother was shot in the hospital with a throat shot. The young man even has an old photo of the injured person on his cell phone. It is also he who tells of the lettering on the wall in the nearby passage. He is speechless, the 30-year-old continues, and the area has always been quiet. To date, many of those around have been unable to imagine that such a crime will occur in Hanau.

Stunned and still composed – this is how almost all of those present and onlookers appear. Between the Lidl and a side entrance of the apartment building just 20 meters away, acquaintances of the victims apparently talk to police officers, only separated by a red and white barrier tape that the police pulled around the crime scene. There are also officials from the so-called operational section support, who act as contacts for relatives and friends. You may pass on certain information to those affected.


Police apparently accessed at three in the morning

The multicultural district is mainly characterized by multi-family houses with an estimated six to ten apartments and a few large apartment blocks with apparently up to sixty units. Smaller rows of row houses or somewhat dilapidated bungalows are also scattered. The western city is not one of the most popular addresses in Hanau in southern Hesse. The bodies of the perpetrator and his mother were found in a row of houses just five minutes’ walk from the second crime scene. It is still unclear whether it is the perpetrator’s apartment or that of his parents. In any case, a local resident tells in an interview that it is the parents’ apartment, and the father has looked after the offender’s sick mother there.

According to the resident – well-groomed, gray-haired and around 50 years old – the Weststadt in Hanau has a negative image. In the district there were quasi two groups of opinions about the increasing influx of foreigners and Germans with a migration background. Some would have said that people get along wonderfully, while others had complained about the increasing number of foreigners in the area. Another resident tells a reporter that she woke up at three o’clock from a loud bang. At this point the police had apparently stormed the house. A helicopter was circling above the district. But she didn’t get much more, says the shocked woman.


Hesse’s Interior Minister Beuth gets information on site

The district is at best a ten-minute drive from the first crime scene in Hanau’s city center. In the street Heumarkt, almost directly at the corner of Krämerstrasse, the assassin started his killing spree in the hookah bar “Midnight” according to the current state of knowledge. According to as yet unconfirmed information, there are said to have been two victims in a bar two shops away. In any case, at noon there are still markings for evidence at the door of this bar called “La Votre”. Shortly after twelve o’clock, the Hesse interior minister Peter Beuth is leaving the scene of the crime after he has been informed by officials there about the crime. The “Midnight” and “La Votre” are directly opposite the “Hotel zum Riesen”, which was rebuilt after the Second World War and in which Napoleon apparently once spent a night in 1812 – a small town with history for the Hanauers.

Nowadays, the area is characterized by typical venues for night owls – bars, amusement arcades, snack bars, shops for sports betting and night clubs. The street Heumarkt is still largely closed off by the police on Thursday afternoon. Occasionally, residents look at the scenery of police officers, television cameras and onlookers. A few young people tell reporters that even in nearby bars they work until two or three in the morning. One of the young people, who praised the multicultural city of Hanau for its openness to migrants and refugees, said they would probably go to work the next shifts with an oppressive feeling. The Main-Kinzig police department is only a few minutes away from the scene of the crime, which is why one of those present complained about the allegedly long time until the police arrived. Of course, such assessments by onlookers have not been verified.


Carnival parade in Hanau canceled

Hanau, with its almost 100,000 inhabitants, is certainly in a state of emergency this Thursday, although little is noticed apart from the crime scenes. But of course people have only one topic, the mad act with eleven deaths. The planned carnival parade in the city in the Darmstadt administrative district has already been canceled, in Hesse and throughout Germany the flags hang on half-masted public buildings, and there are minutes of silence all over the country. People have to process what has happened. But this process should only begin when the police flutter tape is still present at the crime scenes.

You can contact the business editor Michael Rasch Twitter. Linkedin and Xing as well as NZZ Frankfurt Facebook consequences.

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