Posted on 06/09/2004 2:42:47 PM PDT by swilhelm73
At least 17 people have been hurt in a suspected bomb blast in a commercial district of the German city of Cologne. One person was critically injured and four people seriously injured in the blast, which showered the street with glass and debris.
The explosion occurred outside a three-storey building housing both flats and shops in the district of Muelheim.
"We are assuming it was an attack," a police spokesman told Reuters news agency, adding no warning was given.
No clues
The blast hit the building - in a busy shopping street in the mainly Turkish district - at about 1600 local time (1400 GMT).
Several shops and cars in the street were damaged.
Thousands of nails were found at the scene, sparking speculation that they might have been in the bomb, but police said they could not confirm that.
The shops closest to the blast were reportedly a pizzeria and hairdressers' salon.
The wounded are being treated in hospital. They include a critically injured man who was standing in front of the pizzeria at the time of the explosion, AP news agency quoted a fire department spokesman as saying.
Police have sealed off the area around the blast site and are reportedly sweeping the area for suspects.
They say they have no clues to the identity or motive of the suspected attackers, but have not ruled out a political motive.
Cologne, Germany's fourth-largest city, has substantial Turkish and Kurdish communities.
Well, Germany goes out of its way not to antagonize Al Qaeda or any of the radical Arab groups, so it cant be one of them.
This is the first time we've gotten this information. I would assume, in this case, particularly since I read somewhere else that many of the victims had nails in them, that somebody in the Turkish neighborhood was busy preparing a bomb to be used elsewhere. The person may not have been a Turk, but probably was a Muslim of some sort. Which makes the initial scenario (a fight between hairdressers!!!) MUCH less likely.
Don't discount the Eighth United States Army Air Force.
No kidding!
using nails to attack a pizza joint. diabolical.
will these people stop at nothing?
Has France determined that it was not intended to target Paris?
Heaven knows I'd like to believe that, but the possibility exists that someone placed this explosive in the muslim district.
I've met more than a few Germans who are not enamored with the "brown people" in their country.
Overwhelmingly likely it was a skinhead or neo-Nazi; quite a lot of incidents involving them attacking Turkish immigrants.
Actually it may have been premature detonation, or a "work accident" as it's called in Gaza.
"Don't take it so hard, Ahmed, it happens to every man now and then."
I suppose that's possible. However, from what I have gleaned from the foreign press, it seems that it was in somebody's apartment. I don't think a skinhead would be living there.
Still, anything's possible - I guess we'll have to wait for more (and more reliable) info.
Right and this neonazi would enter a turkish only area on its own by bike...
No highly unlikely...
Maybe Al Qaeda is mad because they didn't do enough to keep the US out of Iraq. Maybe now they see them as useless and to be destroyed.
Thanks! We hadn't gotten the bike information here yet.
No, I posted this on the earlier thread more tha 4 hours earlier:
From AFP via Yahoo - Die Explosion habe sich gegen 16.00 Uhr im oder vor dem Erdgeschoss des Gebäudes in der Keup-Straße des von vielen Türken bewohnten
Or, per Babelfish: "The explosion has itself against 16.00 o'clock in or before the ground floor of the building in the Keup road from many Turks inhabited"
9 posted on 06/09/2004 12:13:57 PM CDT by PAR35
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1150534/posts?page=9#9
Since you know the area, where in Mulheim did it occur?
Sorry, guess I didn't see it. There have been several threads on this today, and I haven't had time to read them all. Thanks!
I think Turks were targets in this attack, and I'll go with neo-nazis as the attackers. Turks aren't terrorists unless they're the Kurdish separatists.
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