Explosion in German city of Cologne (Koln)

[Guy_Montag]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040609/325/evknq.html

Blast injures 12 in Cologne

BERLIN (Reuters) - An explosion in a building in the German city of Cologne has injured up to 12 people, four seriously, fire services in the city say.

A police spokesman said the cause of the explosion on Wednesday was not yet clear.

"There was an explosion in a three-storey residential and business building in Cologne," a fire services spokesman said. There were no dead but fire services were still at the scene investigating, he added.

N-TV television earlier reported that there was speculation the blast was an attack of some kind on a hairdresser's shop.

[bif]

1. Someone must have gotten a bad haircut.

and was geting revenge.

[Heidi]

8. Would you say that . . .

if it happened in the U.S.? I'm just wondering because Germany's just about spittin' distance from me.

[Chicago Democrat]

19. this sucks.

[Guy_Montag]

2. Update: Police now believe it was a bomb.

1 person critically injured & in intensive care.

[mare]

3. It seems as if it was a bomb

probably filled nails that exploded in front of a hairdresser's shop in a part of Cologne that's mostly inhabited by turkish people. The news I just saw said the police doesn't think it had anything to do with terrorists.

[Kellanved]

4. exactly

Here are a few pictures from the scene:



Apparently a hairdresser's shop and a pizzeria got the main damage.

[Canuckistanian]

11. Looks like it's next to a Turkish shop of some kind

Maybe racially based? The skinheads hate the Turkish "guest workers"

[elf]

14. it's here at post #7

[Kellanved]

15. not just a shop

it was in a "little Turkey" kind of district. I'm not sure, but my guess is organized crime and not a political background.

[geek tragedy]

5. How do the police know that?

Nail bombs look pretty terroristic to me.

Or do they consider skinhead crimes to be something other than terrorism.

[Kellanved]

6. they don't

The local police said that they have no idea about the background; the federal police said that a Islamic background is "unlikely".

[nodehopper]

10. I think if it's a nails bomb it has to do w/terrorists by fiat.

The question is just which terrorists.

[newyawker99]

24. Hi mare!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[elf]

7. In that part of the city a lot of Turkish and Kurds are living.

Since a long time, Germany wanted to deport their fanatic, violence preaching "Sheik of Cologne".

He was in prison again and again, but foreign policy doesn't fit to get him out of the Country.

[Kellanved]

12. I don't think that a Kaplan connection is likely

The whole Kaplan story was hyped by the conservative xenophobes anyway - sure he seems to be a dangerous madman, but that doesn't justify treating immigrants like 2nd class citizens or criminals. I don't like the demands drawn from the Kaplan-affair one bit, most lack the constitutional basis anyway.

[supernova]

9. Here's the Deutche Welle blurb

GERMAN BOMB BLAST INJURES 17

A bomb filled with nails has exploded in the western German city of Cologne injuring 17 people, five of them seriously. A police spokesman told reporters that they were looking for the assailant or perpetrators who are yet unknown. The blast rocked an apartment building devastating a hairdresser's salon on the ground floor on Wednesday evening.

http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,4789_W_1231684,00.html

Racism? :shrug: Nail bombs are particularly nasty.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. That was my first thought

Not radical Islamic violence, but anti-immigrants-from-Islamic-countries violence.

Note that the target was in a Turkish/Kurdish neighborhood.

[Woody Box]

20. Not anti-islamic

Possibly anti-immigrant in general or anti-turk, but not anti-islamic. There are little anti-islamic ressentiments in Germany.

[supernova]

22. Yes, I'm thinking anti-immigrant

if anything.

[elf]

16. look at post #7

[trogdor]

17. Translation of article in Bild T-Online

Alta-Vista Babel Fish sucks. I cleaned up the translation only to find the thread asking for it was locked. Here it is straight from the German press:

A police speaker: "it was an assassination attempt" ++ explosive device containing 1000 nails ++ 17 people hurt in bomb attack in Cologne.

Blood-overflowed: With the explosion this man (I assume there was a picture) was injured at the head and left shoulder.

Chaos in Cologne: With a bomb attack before a beauty shop 17 people were hurt. There was are also a Pizzeria and a Gyros stand. At about 4:00 PM a bomb exploded loaded with about a thousand five inch long nails. Police spokesmen confirmed this to reporter Juergen Laggies for Bild T-Online.

Emergency surgeons and rescue medics applied first aid to serious wounds and burns. At least one person is in critical condition. Many had to be hospitalized with heavy injuries. The police spokesman: "Many Turkish families live and work in the Keupstrasse neighborhood in Muelheim. The detonation happened at about 4:00 PM. We locked off the entire area."

Everywhere rubble - Cologne houses after the bomb explosion: Eye-witnesses report of people on fire, which were put out by passers-by. A man's arm was severely injured.

Adjacent resident Klaus Steinmetz to Bild T-Online: "This looks like a war movie. Cars are damaged. Rubble lies everywhere. windows broken, everything strewn with pieces of broken glass. Storefront signs were torn down." In the meantime the police released the findings for a possible bomb-casualty. A stress analyst examines the building for collapse danger. At present the police evacuates the road, seeks caution for the sake of after a possible further explosion.

[gandalf]

18. You know what kind of tabloid Bild is... nt

[elf]

21. we know, but in some cases you get the first news from there!

:shrug:

[Karenina]

25. Don't forget the EXPRESS!!!

;-)

[trogdor]

23. It's like the NY Post.

The sort of rag people who don't read well read. There's usually a picture of a big titty maedchen on page 3, Lotto numbers on the front page (and sometimes another big titty maedchen), and fussball scores in the back. The news tends to be written in a somewhat sensational manner.