The 2018 Cologne attack was an attack and subsequent hostage-taking that occurred at the central railway station of Cologne, Germany, on 15 October 2018.
On Monday, 15 October 2018 at 12:30 German time, the Syrian refugee Mohammed Abo R. entered a McDonald's fast food restaurant at the Cologne Central Station with a bag and a suitcase. In the restaurant, he sat down at a table, drew a pistol, and spilled a flammable liquid on the floor. Shortly thereafter, he took a Molotov cocktail from his suitcase, ignited it and set the floor of the restaurant on fire. [1] [2]
The fire ignited the clothes of a 14-year-old German girl, who ran out of the restaurant in a panic. Passersby quickly extinguished the girl's burning clothes, who, despite the rapid reaction of the passersby, suffered severe burns to her legs. [3] Surprised by the triggered fire sprinkler system, Mohammed had meanwhile fled the fast food restaurant and, armed with his gun, stormed into an adjacent pharmacy, where he took an employee hostage. [4]
At 12:45 German time, the first emergency calls reached the police. [5] The police quickly evacuated the station and cordoned off the surrounding area. [6] On the phone, the perpetrator stated his demands: Free passage to Syria, the release of a Tunisian woman, and the return of his suitcase and bag from the McDonald's. He claimed to be a member of ISIL. [7] [8]
A two-hour standoff led to no peaceful solution. The perpetrator in the meanwhile, had poured gasoline over his hostage, put a Molotov cocktail in her hand, and a lighter in her mouth. When he tried to set her on fire, the police attacked. At 14:55 German time, a SEK team detonated two stun grenades, stormed the pharmacy, and shot the perpetrator, who was still armed with his pistol. Three police officers fired a total of six rounds at Mohammed, of which several hit his upper body and one hit him in the head. [9] The hostage was carried from the pharmacy and handed over to paramedics. Mohammed was dragged by the SEK Members to the square in front of the pharmacy, where CPR was applied and his wounds were treated by police medics. [10] [11]
During the incident a total of three victims were wounded, some of them seriously
The hostage was treated in a clinic after the incident. She suffered a shock and a gasoline poisoning. [12] On Wednesday, she was able to leave the hospital. [13]
The 14-year-old German girl Lika M., whose clothes were caught on fire by R.´s Molotov cocktail, was seriously injured. 10 percent of her skin was burned. [14] She was treated in a children's hospital in Cologne. Eight surgeries and two skin transplants later she was able to leave the hospital in December 2018. Doctors expect her to make a full recovery. [15]
The fire department reported another victim. This person suffered smoke inhalation, but was able to leave the hospital on the same day. [12]
In the McDonald's, the bag and suitcase of the perpetrator were examined and declared safe by EOD Operators. Further Molotov cocktails, containers with a flammable liquid and several IEDs were found in the bags. The IEDs were gas cartridges modified with steel balls for maximum destruction. [16] [17] In the pharmacy the investigators found further containers with flammable liquid and further IEDs. Furthermore, an airsoft pistol and an identity document were seized. [18] [19]
In the evening of the same day, R.'s apartment was stormed and searched by the police. This happened especially in view of a possible terrorist attack and other perpetrators. Large quantities of gasoline and Arabic characters were found in the apartment. The characters are not related to Islamism or ISIL. [19] Multiple electronic devices were seized in the apartment including two mobile phones.
In the beginning terrorism was a possible motive. During the investigation kept going no evidence of relations between Mohammed Abo R. and terrorism were found. The case was ruled non terrorism related. [20]
After terrorism was ruled out, it was determined that Mohammed suffered from mental health issues. They found that he had been in psychotherapy since 2017 and was taking medication to combat depression. He was also suffering from gambling and drug addiction. [21]
Police stated that they could not rule out a terror attack. [22] [23] The Cologne prosecutor's office charged Mohammed Abo R. with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated battery and hostage-taking. [24] On 16 October 2018, the Public Prosecutor General took over investigations because there were "sufficient indications for a radical Islamist background." [25] During the investigation no evidence for a terror related attack were found. In December 2018 the Public Prosecutor General gave the case back to the Cologne prosecutor's office. [21] The investigation is still ongoing.
In June 2019, his pre-trial detention was suspended for six months and he was transferred to a specialist neurological clinic. Experts assume that Mohammed's stay at the clinic will allow him to recover to the point where he can participate in the trial. [26]
The perpetrator was named as Mohammad Abo R., [27] a 55-year-old man of Arab, reportedly Syrian origin. He entered Europe during the peak of the European migrant crisis and was first intercepted by the authorities of the Czech Republic in early 2015. He filed an asylum application in the Czech Republic but then moved to Germany, where he filed an asylum application in March 2015. Under the Dublin Regulation, the German authorities should have expelled him to the Czech Republic, but they did not do so. [28] [29] He was given permission to stay in Germany until 2021. [23]
Abo R. was known to the police. He had been charged 13 times since 2016, the charges included drug possession, theft, threat, fraud and trespassing. He was never convicted. [30]
Mohammed was wounded by several shots, several projectiles hit him in the upper body and one projectile hit him in the head. He was carried by the SEK officers from the pharmacy to the square in front of the pharmacy where he was resuscitated by the officers and a female GSG9 doctor. [31] After successful resuscitation, Mohammed was taken to the University Hospital of Cologne, where he underwent emergency surgery. He was later transferred to intensive care. [32] On Tuesday, his condition remained critical. [12] In a press conference on Wednesday, the police announced that the perpetrator was no longer in a life threatening condition, but was in a coma. [13]
Two months after the incident, Mohammed woke up from the coma. [33] He was later transferred to the prison hospital of North Rhine-Westphalia. [34] Due to the gunshot wounds Mohammed is paralyzed on one side and must be artificially fed, fragments of the bullet are still stuck in his skull. According to a medical report, he is not able to take part in a court trial in his current condition. [35]
Cologne main station was completely locked down. Thousands of people, many travelers among them, gathered around the station. [22]
Cologne Pride or Cologne Gay Pride is one of the largest gay and lesbian events organised in Germany and one of the biggest in Europe. Its origin is to celebrate the pride in Gay and Lesbian Culture.
Köln Hauptbahnhof is the central railway station of Cologne, Germany. The station is an important local, national and international transport hub, with many ICE, Eurostar and Intercity trains calling there, as well as regional Regional-Express, RegionalBahn and local S-Bahn trains. EuroNight and Nightjet night services also call at the station. It has frequent connections to Frankfurt by way of the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line, which starts in southern Cologne. On an average day, about 280,000 travellers frequent the station, making it the fifth busiest station in Germany.
Wolfgang Kaleck is a German civil rights attorney. He is the founder as well as the general secretary for the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. He resides in Berlin, Germany.
The Cologne Central Mosque is a building commissioned by German Muslims of the Organization DİTİB for a large, representative Zentralmoschee in Cologne, Germany. This mosque was inaugurated by Turkish President Erdogan. After controversy, the project won the approval of Cologne's city council.
Innenstadt is the central borough of the City of Cologne in Germany.
The Pro Germany Citizens' Movement was a far-right political party in Germany. It was founded in Cologne on 20 January 2005 as a part of the Pro-movement after Pro Cologne members had been elected to the Cologne City Council. Manfred Rouhs, treasurer of the Pro Cologne movement and former candidate of the German League for People and Homeland and the National Democratic Party of Germany, was elected its first chairman. The federal party convent decided at its ninth ordinary meeting in Wuppertal on 11 November 2017 to dissolve the party.
The hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615 occurred on 29 October 1972 and was aimed at the liberation of the three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre from a West German prison.
Henriette Reker is a German lawyer and independent politician. She is known for her pro-immigration stance and for being the victim of an assassination attempt in 2015. A day after the attack, Reker was elected mayor of Cologne after gaining 52.66% of the votes. She is the first female mayor elected in Cologne's history. Reker was re-elected in 2020.
During the 2015–2016 celebrations of New Year's Eve in Germany, approximately 1,200 women were reported to have been sexually assaulted, especially in the city of Cologne. In many of the incidents, while these women were in public spaces, they were surrounded and assaulted by large groups of men who were identified by officials as Muslim men of Arab or North African origin. The Federal Criminal Police Office confirmed in July 2016 that 1,200 women had been sexually assaulted on that night.
Wolfgang Albers is a German jurist. From 1 October 2011 to 8 January 2016 he has served as chief of the Cologne police.
Ernst Heinrichsohn was a German lawyer and member of the SS who participated in the deportation of French Jews to Auschwitz during World War II.
On 2 April 2017, a young woman was raped by a stranger at the Siegaue nature reserve in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The case received a lot of media coverage because of the perpetrator's status as an illegal immigrant and failed asylum seeker.
The 2018 Cologne terrorist plot was foiled when, on 13 June 2018, police arrested Sief Allah H. in Cologne as he was manufacturing an explosive device which incorporated the highly toxic substance ricin. He was arrested for having breached the Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz.
The Halle synagogue shooting occurred on 9 October 2019 in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, and continued in nearby Landsberg. After unsuccessfully trying to enter the synagogue in Halle during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the attacker, 27-year-old Stephan Balliet, fatally shot two people nearby and later injured two others. Federal investigators called the attack far-right and antisemitic terrorism.
Heribert Hirte is a German legal scholar and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2013 until 2021.
Khubaib-Ali Mohammed is a German criminal defense lawyer with Pakistani roots.
On September 18, 2021, a fatal attack with a firearm on the 20-year-old employee of a gas station was carried out in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. The perpetrator, a 49-year-old man, had been requested by the employee to wear his surgical mask as mandated by the German government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The shooting received a lot of public attention and was related by some to the increasing radicalization of the so-called Querdenken movement or to the recent rise of right-wing conspiracy theories, while criminal psychologists pointed to the possibility that the shooter may have been driven by personal or psychological problems. In September 2022, the perpetrator was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in jail; both prosecution and defence lodged appeals against the verdict.
Odo Rumpf is a German sculptor working in Cologne.
On 28 July 1995, a hostage-taking occurred during a sight-seeing tour in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. A gunman held 22 passengers hostage on a parked tourist bus after killing the bus driver. The hostage situation lasted for seven hours. He injured a passenger as well as a police officer outside with gunshots, then fatally shot another hostage. The gunman was fatally shot when police stormed the bus.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)