Berlin Arson Attack Foiled

BERLIN — An attack at Berlin's main train station was thwarted on Monday when workers found a hidden device before it could explode, police said.

Earlier Monday, a similar device exploded near a high-speed train line west of Berlin, causing some damage but no casualties, and halting train traffic there for the day.

An unknown leftist group claimed responsibility for the device that exploded, saying it wants to protest Germany's role in the war in Afghanistan.

Police were examining the message's authenticity and trying to determine if the same group was responsible for both attacks.

At the train station near Germany's Chancellery in central Berlin the explosive device discovered by railway employees was set to explode soon, police said. Experts secured seven bottles filled with flammable liquid bundled together and linked to a fuse, Federal Police spokeswoman Nadine Marschner said.

Railway employees alerted authorities at midday after detecting suspicious items at the north end of one of the station's tunnels, 100 yards (meters) from train platforms, she added.

After the earlier attack – during which an explosion occurred in a utility shaft near a high-speed train line linking Berlin and Hamburg – police said they obtained a letter in which the leftist group claimed responsibility for the attack, and its authenticity was being examined, Brandenburg Criminal Police spokesman Toralf Reinhardt told German news agency dapd.

In a similar letter posted on a leftist website, a group calling itself Hekla Reception Committee – Initiative for more Eruptions in Society claimed responsibility, saying it launched the successful attack to protest Germany's roles in the Afghanistan war and as an arms exporter. The group's name is an apparent reference to Iceland's Hekla volcano.

"We dedicate our action to Bradley Manning," the letter said, referring to the U.S. Army private suspected of supplying the many classified documents released by the WikiLeaks website.

Gerd Neubeck, the head of security at German railway operator Deutsche Bahn, denounced the attack, saying: "Our customers shall not be held responsible for the German military's mission in Afghanistan."

Berlin has seen several recent arson attacks that police have blamed on leftist extremists.

One of them in May targeted a utility shaft at an important railway hub in the city's east, causing massive disruption that left thousands of passengers stranded.

Germany is a large contributor to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, with about 5,000 soldiers stationed in the north of the country.

Comments

[splenetic]

12:15 AM on 10/11/2011

Nice train station.

[who38]

01:50 PM on 10/10/2011

"This morning we will slow down the capital as a global player of arms exports," Bild quoted from the letter.

How is Germany a "player"?  I thought that they agreed not to manufacture arms as part of the WWII peace treaty?  Not so?

[Lukas474]

04:36 PM on 10/10/2011

No Germany is the third largest arms exporter after the US and Russia

[who38]

06:33 PM on 10/10/2011

Thanks for your response.  It piqued interest enough to google for more info.  Was shocked to discover that the Netherlands ships more arms than Israel.  Now I have to find out why Japan did not make the list.

[MarcEdward]

10:21 AM on 10/10/2011

German tabloid Bild reported a leftist group calling itself "Hekla Reception Committee – Initiative for more Eruptions in Society" – in an apparent reference to Iceland's Hekla volcano – claimed responsibility. It said it was a protest against Germany's military engagement in Afghanistan.

Evil idiots indeed.
So, to protest military involvement, they'd burn people to death. 
Hope the rot in prison someday.

[Little Princess]

11:20 AM on 10/10/2011

Wrong. They did not plan to burn any people. You could even detect that from the article above. The key sentence: "The blast in a utility shaft caused some damage and brought train traffic temporarily to a halt." Don't you ever read an article?!

For train travellers was an annoying delay, nothing worse would have happened to anybody. And that is the information the police gave. End of story. Nobody got upset, the lousy service of the railway company accounts for more delays than this.

[MolliBlum]

01:35 PM on 10/10/2011

Well, it's hardly surprising that Bild would sensationalise this. According to DerSpiegel (which quite frankly isn't a great deal better most of the time -- they just use bigger words and smaller pictures), the intent appears to have been primarily to cause disruption rather than physical harm:

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,791014,00.html

The motive, however, according to the group (Hekla) claiming responsibility is, as you say, a protest against Germany's involvement in Afghanistan.