At least eight people were killed Wednesday February 19 in two shootings in Hanau, near Frankfurt, according to a police spokesman. The perpetrator (s) of the shootings, who allegedly targeted shisha bars according to local media, are on the run, added the police, who “Launched a large-scale manhunt”.
A first shooting allegedly targeted a shisha bar, the Midnight, in the heart of this city of about 90,000 inhabitants, located about twenty kilometers from Frankfurt (Hesse). Witnesses, quoted by local media, reported hearing a dozen shots.
The author (s) then left this first site by car in the direction of Kurt-Schumacher Platz, in the district of Kesselstadt, according to the police. A second shooting then occurred in front of the Arena Bar. Police said three people were killed outside the first hookah bar and five outside the second.
A large security cordon, with heavily armed police units, had been set up in two streets in Hanau where ambulances had previously rushed. A police helicopter patrolled the city. We do not yet know the motive for this double shooting.
Fear of far-right terrorism
Germany has been the target of several jihadist attacks in recent years, one of which killed 12 people in the heart of Berlin in December 2016. But it is the threat of far-right terrorism that worries the authorities the most. since the murder of a pro-migrant German elected member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party last June.
On Friday, twelve members of a far-right group were arrested in connection with a major counterterrorism investigation. They are believed to have planned large-scale attacks on Christchurch-style mosques. They were taken into custody.
In October, a right-wing extremist Holocaust denier attempted to carry out an attack in a synagogue in Halle, a massacre that was only barely avoided. Unable to enter the religious building in which the faithful had barricaded themselves, he had shot a passerby and the client of a kabab restaurant, broadcasting his packages live on the Internet. His trial is expected soon.
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