Four Wounded: Mentally Ill Person Hijacks Truck, Goes On A Rampage Through Würzburg

Your ordinary Wednesday in Germany. An original translation from Merkur:

Four Injured, Property Damage
Arrest! Insane Person Speeds Truck Through Würzburg

Horror drive through Würzburg: a supposedly mentally ill person raced through the city, injured people and damaged property.

Würzburg  – A suspected mentally ill man raced through Würzburg with a stolen small truck, injuring four. The 35-year-old hijacked the delivery truck of a bakery on Wednesday before noon, and took off with an employee of the bakery in the rear, police announce. At high speed, the German sped away, rammed an oncoming car, and several parked cars, before the truck got wedged. After the 35-year-old had exited the driver’s compartment, he pushed a motorcycle rider from his bike, and finally wounded himself. Four passers-by overpowered the man until police arrested him.

Property Damage and Injuries
The employee of the bakery, the driver of the oncoming car, the motorcyclist, and one of the passers-by were injured, according to police. At least eleven cars were damaged by the man on his run. He was taken to hospital.

German Press on Attack on Merkel: When someone runs towards you, yelling ‘Allahu Akbar’, don’t be bigoted!

Berlin – on Wednesday, a loudly yelling Afghan ran towards Angela Merkel, as she was leaving the Reichstag, and was wrestled down by two security guards. It was caught on camera, and aired live, more or less accidentally.

Please have a look at the two following videos and compare.

The first one aired LIVE, so the interviewer and his guest keep on talking, as they have no idea what is going on. The sound is un-edited and you can hear the yelling very clearly.

Then please watch the second clip, produced by Bild newspaper afterwards, and compare the sound of the two.

1. The clip that aired live, relevant part beginning at 7 seconds in:

2. Bild’s edited clip. Please pay attention to the sound:

Die Welt reassure us that the “disturber was merely running towards Merkel”, no harm intended, and that there is no reason for a “knee jerk reaction”, just because someone runs toward you, yelling “something in a foreign language” that “sounds similar to Allahu akbar”.

We are translating it for the humor:

“Heart stopping moment in front of the Bundestag: On Wednesday, an Afghan ran towards the chancellor, yelling something – then, a bodyguard stopped him. WELT learned from police insiders what they know about the man and how they assess the incident.

(…) He is an Afghan, 23 years old. But he does not live in Berlin. He is from Swabian Ostfildern, southeast of Stuttgart. And he has no police record so far.

His motive does not seem to have been hostile. He simply ran towards the world-famous chancellor. Upon doing so, he was stopped by a bodyguard, whose job it simply is to prevent such incidents. And he did not yell anything political – no slogans, and definitely no suicide attack slogans.

So the case is treated by regular police, not by state security.”

One is reminded of the famous advice that a German criminal psychologist gave, after the axe attack on board a Würzburg train:

Criminal psychologist Jens Hoffmann, commenting on the Würzburg train attack in Tagesanzeiger.

“It is understandable that you feel threatened when someone with an axe enters the train. But we mustn’t become paranoid. It helps to go there and politely ask what it’s all about.”