Three Pipe Bombs Found During Berlin May Day Protest
- Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:19pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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BERLIN (AP) — Berlin police announced Tuesday they had found three improvised pipe bombs near a huge May 1 protest march in what a prominent German lawmaker called an act of terrorism.
The aluminum pipe devices – about 40 centimeters (16 inches) each – were filled with an explosive but were not detonated, police spokesman Stefan Redlich said. If any had exploded, they could have caused serious or deadly injuries up to 15 meters (50 feet) away, he added.
Experts are still investigating the explosive substance and do not yet know whether it could have burst the pipes into pieces, creating a shrapnel bomb, Redlich added.
In this undated photo publicly provided by police in Berlin on Monday May 7, 2012 three explosive devices are pictured. The bombs were found on sidewalks during a rally of up to ten thousand leftists on May Day, but police officers initially thought they were just large fireworks and picked them up by hand to have them checked by experts. (AP Photo/ho/Police Berlin)
The bombs were found on sidewalks in Berlin’s western Kreuzberg neighborhood as 10,000 leftists rallied on May Day, but police officers thought they were just large fireworks and picked them up to check them later.
The substance in the pipes was made of chlorate and sugar, but experts have not determined how powerful the explosive mixture was, Redlich said.
Police had no immediate information on who might have left the bombs or what their motive may have been. Redlich said no hypothesis could be ruled out – it might have been a leftist attempt to attack police security or an attack targeting the leftist protesters.
The head of Parliament’s top security committee, Wolfgang Bosbach, told daily Berliner Morgenpost that the incident has to be taken very seriously “because the perpetrators still live among us and there’s no guarantee they will limit their actions to May 1.”
Berlin traditionally sees huge leftist protest rallies on May Day and clashes with police are frequent. But over the past years, violence has decreased as the number of police has risen – up to 7,000 this year.
A total of 123 demonstrators were arrested and 124 officers injured during this year’s protests.
Police Union GdP’s Berlin chief, Klaus Eisenreich, told RBB-Inforadio the bombs represent a new dimension.
“We think they weren’t only targeting police officers. This is terrorism,” he was quoted as saying.
Germany‘s Federal Prosecutors’ Office – responsible for all major terrorism investigations – said Tuesday its experts will decide whether the case is serious enough for them to take it over from local prosecutors.
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Zuitsuit
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 6:34pmLooks like something Us police or FBI would make up to plant on someone
Report Post »Master.Debater
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 4:35pmKreuzberg is a ghetto district by German standards and is largely populated by immigrants, mostly Turks. Most people that live there don’t work. If you walk down the street there, you are more likely to hear Turkish, Arabic or Russian spoken than German.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 8:31pmCertainly not like the Kreutzberg near Wildflecken.
Report Post »Theyoungpatriot
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 3:48pmHmmmmmm short fuses plus morons equals trouble……….
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:43pmOnly an idiot left wing Marxist is dumb enough to make a pipe bomb that big with a fuse that short….fools should have lit, it would have blown up in their faces and done the world some good.
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:56pmlol, funny. Wish they would have lit 1
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 3:08pm@SIR….should have lit all three…even as kids we knew how to handle bottle rockets, M80′s etc…these idiots can’t even do that right and they want to be in charge…geesh
Report Post »TheLeftMadeMeRight
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 3:48pmlooks like they were intended to be lit and thrown
Report Post »MONICNE
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:40pmIs the “The BerlinG” or some other Berl-ING in German-ING?
TEA
Report Post »Lesterp
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 3:04pmUr rally smert aint chew.
Report Post »moussiagilda
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:38pmExcept in my case, I’m refusing to take any medication, and seeing if they will let me and others go if we take no medication except what’s in the food and air and atmosphere. I bet everything that what happened to me in Seton House will happen here. That heroes will take over and fraidycats will skedaddle.
If they start pumping cyanide through the vents here, tsk, tsk, tsk…
Report Post »moussiagilda
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:34pmNobody at all is getting a good sleep in this psych ward, UW Health in Madison, and guess what the sole concern of the doctors is: not letting anyone out until they get a good night’s sleep. They try to give you a good night’s sleep by giving you more and more and more medication! Sick!
Report Post »Best_Patriot
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:33pmWhat’s a “Berling?”
It appears that The Blaze has tea party patriots doing the “spell check.” Figures.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:42pmNothin gets by you, Eh Einsteen??
Report Post »Dale
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:55pmI noticed the consistent incorrect spelling as well – checked article to see where Berling was. Another thing I noticed is that these were ‘improvised’ pipe bombs – what was the improvisation? Bomb builders found the pipes as apposed to buying them; or was it the explosives they ‘found’? I hate overused, hackneyed, thoughtless ‘popular’ wordsmithing: sustainability, multiple (as opposed to an actual number greater than one), etc. Come on, theblaze – try really thinking about what you write.
Report Post »moussiagilda
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:31pmYou’re skeert.
Report Post »moussiagilda
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:31pmJig’s up.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on May 8, 2012 at 2:30pmAren’t those fuses rather short??
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