Shots in a Krefeld cinema: The police fired at a man who was pouring flammable liquid. 150 people were in the complex.
Police officers shot down a suspected attacker in a cinema in Krefeld. It is a 38-year-old man; the police speak of a man from Krefeld with Iranian nationality. He is said to have tried to set fire to the cinema. According to a cinema employee, he was in the process of spilling a flammable liquid in the foyer area of the cinema.
According to the “Bild” newspaper, two officers opened fire on the assassin. Horrified moviegoers watched. Bullet holes can be seen in the windows in the pictures.
The attacker was taken to hospital with serious injuries and is still being treated there. There is no danger to life, as a police spokesman said on Friday morning.
As the Essen police confirmed, the man is suspected of having previously started fires in three different locations in the Cracau district of Krefeld. The type of fire accelerant used is still under investigation. The cinema employee suspected petrol based on the smell.
According to officials, there is no evidence of a terrorist attack. No one was injured in the fires. The police spokesman also told t-online that, contrary to what some media reported, there was never a police shooting alarm.
The operation was triggered after numerous reports of fires were received via the emergency call around 7:50 p.m. According to police, an apartment, a parked vehicle and an office building burned within a short period of time in the Philadelphia Street area.
According to an unconfirmed report in “Bild”, the suspect is said to have hurled an incendiary device into the Federal Employment Agency building. He is then said to have set fire to a car parked in front of the house and fled towards the main train station. A house near the train station also burned.
According to a police spokesman, it is unclear why the man ran to the cinema after the arson, whether he wanted to break in or escape there. According to WDR information, the man wanted to go to the cinema with a Molotov cocktail and another weapon.
Police officers finally found the man in the foyer of the Cinemaxx multiplex cinema at the main train station and incapacitated him with gunfire. The station itself was apparently not closed, people were going in and coming out.
The police do not believe there is any further danger to the population. According to investigators, the man is said to be a lone perpetrator, as a spokesman for the Essen police said. The police have not yet been able to provide any information about the perpetrator’s motive; this is part of the ongoing investigation, a spokesman for the Essen police told t-online.
According to media reports, pastors took care of those affected on site. Krefeld’s mayor Frank Meyer also went to the crime scene, according to the “Rheinischer Post”. According to the city, around 236,000 people live in the Lower Rhine city of Krefeld.