February 05, 2008

Baby hurled from 'neo-nazi' blaze

This is the dramatic moment when a baby was thrown from a fourth-floor window of a building believed to have been set alight by neo-nazis.

The child, who has not been named, was caught safely by a police officer as terrified relatives looked on. Nine people, including five children and a pregnant woman, were killed when the apartment building caught fire in the western German city of Ludwigshafen.

It is thought the attack was carried out by neo-Nazis because the building was a hostel mainly used by Turkish refugees.

The police officer who caught the baby was part of a group who had been celebrating at a nearby carnival. They helped a number of people escape from the building. It was confirmed that 52 people, mostly Turkish citizens, had registered the apartment block as their residence.

Twenty people were being treated in hospital last night. None was thought to be suffering from serious injuries.

Metro

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excuse my language but fuck, thats a dramatic picture. Thank god the baby survived.

Lets hope they catch the bastards who did this.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic that rescuers saved the baby but nine people dead? Tragic.

Anonymous said...

Neo-nazi scum. How can they wonder why any decent person hates them?

Anonymous said...

This was probably encouraged by the German equivalent of the BNP, the BPD - Griffin's mates.

Anonymous said...

This was probably encouraged by the German equivalent of the BNP, the BPD - Griffin's mates.

Probably mean the NPD, I think. Although more likely to have been done by the more extreme elements not associated with any party, or, if they are, the real extreme cranks.

No proof it was arson yet, so wait and see before making any possibly rash comments, but has to be a reasonable chance that it was a skinhead gang with some sort of nazi connections.

Anonymous said...

The very real long arm of the law, may god thank the officer for a safe pair of hands, and damn the bloody nazis who started it in the first place.

Anonymous said...

The BNP and NF trolls on Stormfront must love this news. How long will it be before the nazi trolls here in the UK commit a copycat attack?

Anonymous said...

No mention of the cause on mainstream media eg BBC News - just a human interest atory of remarkable rescue.

If it WAS racially motivated wonder if the media will return to the story ???

I fear not.

Anonymous said...

Not so - it has received wide-spread coverage, including BBC, Sky, ITV (at least here in Meridian), as well as almost every newspaper.
The Telegraph has given at least three substantial articles over to the incident, and seems to be following all developments.
The baby was 11 months old, both parents survived but are in hospital with relatively minor injuries. The child was unharmed.
The reports that it was arson now seem slightly dubious, as it seems they are based on the evidence of two seven-year-old Turkish girls who claim that they saw a German-speaking man put kindling under a pram and set it alight at the bottom of the stairs. However, neither child speaks German, and no pram or kindling has been found at the scene of the fire. The local German police and fire brigade have both now issued statements saying that it was a 'tragic accident'.
Not everyone acceppts this though, and some local papers have said that it might still have been arson. The Turkish Prime Minister has intervened himself, will be visiting Ludwigshafen today (tomorrow?), and has sent an official Turkish fire investigation team to carry out their own investigation.
So far, they have not reported anything other than that they are receiving the 'full co-operation' of the local authorities.
There is a lot out there on the news services if you want to do a google search, but most of the items since the fire itself are in German or Turkish (I've been reading the German articles as I don't know any Turkish beyond 'kebab').
If it does prove to be arson, I am sure that it will be a major international story, and the links to Sollingen will be thoroughly reported on. If it proves to be 'a tragic acciedent', as the German authorities now seem to believe (hope?), then it will probably be another forgotten tradgedy.