A Syrian migrant has been accused of causing injury to multiple people, including children, after he allegedly set two apartment blocks on fire before ramming a grocery shop with a vehicle, and brandishing a machete.
The man has been identified as a 41-year-old Syrian, Shadi. A, who came to Germany in 2015 as part of former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s acceptance of over one million Syrian migrants.
In the German city of Essen, a Syrian man carried out a series of attacks with a machete, 31 people were injured, — Bild
A 41-year-old man rammed two stores in a van and set fire to two residential buildings then began running around city. Eight children were among the injured. pic.twitter.com/52go6K7jlz
31 people are reported to have been injured in the incident including children who suffered from smoke inhalation.
CDU Interior Minister Herbert Reul of North Rhine-Westphalia said, “This was all the work of a man who may not have been able to cope with the separation from his ex-wife. Many people were seriously injured, and apparently, he didn’t care about the damage his actions caused.”
Ruel praised the efforts of a number of men who intervened in the incident, some using garden tools to confront the alleged attacker.
It was reported that the incident unfolded on Saturday at 5:10pm when residents of Pielstickerstraße in Essen’s Altenessen district noticed thick smoke billowing from an apartment block.
Footage of the incident shows small children being lowered out of the windows of the buildings with locals using ladders to reach them.
A second apartment block in Zollvereinstrasse, some 3km away, is also reported to have been set on fire.
#essen pic.twitter.com/C1iZ5WNBlb
Shadi A, who was wearing a Palestine flag and a Keffiyeh at the time of the alleged incident, is also accused of ramming a delivery truck into a food shop on Katernbergerstrasse, before exiting the vehicle armed with a knife and machete and proceeding to threaten locals.
It is believed that the incident was triggered by a domestic dispute between the man and his partner, however Essen police say, “The crime police have taken over the investigation and are examining the connections between the incidents. The specific motives of the arrested man are also the subject of the investigation,”.
Essen Mayor Thomas Kufen, said the incident was allegedly directed at members of the suspect’s estranged wife’s family where fire accelerants were allegedly used to set the buildings ablaze.
“The acts were obviously aimed specifically at a family,” Kufen said. “It is deeply disturbing that even the lives of children were put at risk.
As Gript previously reported, CDU leader Fredrich Merz has called for Germany to stop accepting refugees from Syria and Afghanistan amid a series of violent attacks in which the suspects are from those countries.
Police in Germany recently arrested a Syrian national who is accused of planning a machete attack on soldiers. The man obtained two machetes, each approximately 40 cm (15.75 inches) long as part of an alleged plot to attack Bundeswehr soldiers in Hof who were spending their lunch break with the aim of killing as many of them as possible.
In August, an ISIS-affiliated failed Syrian asylum seeker who was to be deported allegedly killed three people and wounded eight in a knife attack on Germany’s Solingen at a festival celebrating diversity.
Two men and one woman were killed after 26-year-old Issa al H. allegedly went on a stabbing rampage cutting throats.