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Germany Faces Cluster of Fires, Crashes and Crimes as Manhunt Follows Asylum Shelter Killing

Investigators probe causes, suspects as fire crews shift to recovery operations.

Overview

  • Police in Bad Homburg are searching for a 28-year-old suspected of fatally stabbing a 31-year-old resident in an asylum accommodation, with Hinweise pointing to the Saarbrücken area or France.
  • Separately in Essen, a 31-year-old was arrested and remanded on suspicion of attempted murder after garbage was set alight beneath a sleeping homeless man at a bus stop; the victim was unharmed.
  • Fire incidents included a fatal house blaze in Haldensleben that killed a 74-year-old woman, a Munich construction-site fire that prompted the evacuation of about 60 students without injuries, and a Vetschau chemical-hall “foam flood” traced to a fire-alarm fault with no fire or casualties.
  • More large-scale responses were required in Geringswalde, where over 1,000 straw bales burned and cattle were moved to safety during prolonged operations, and in Greiz, where a cellar fire led to 21 evacuations and nine minor injuries.
  • Traffic emergencies featured a deadly multi-vehicle crash and fire on the A59 near Cologne that left one dead and at least five injured, a fatal three-car collision in Frankfurt-Bockenheim that killed an 83-year-old driver, and a wrong-way drive on the A7 causing multiple crashes before police stopped the motorist; Frankfurt’s days-long Kohlesilo operation has largely wound down with the cause still unclear.