A Syrian man (40) has been arrested in Bochum following a terror threat.
A large-scale police operation was triggered in the district of Bochum-Wattenscheid (Ruhr area) at around 3.22 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. The emergency services used the short message service X (formerly Twitter) to call on people to avoid Oststraße in the center of the district.
“We are on site with many emergency services”, said a spokeswoman. The Dortmund police, who are responsible for large-scale incidents, have taken over command of the operation.
It is now known that the incident took place at a branch of a savings bank (photo). According to information from the newspaper BILD, a man with an Arab appearance is said to have entered the bank in the afternoon and shouted “Hamas, Hamas – bomb, bomb”.
The man then allegedly threw a bag and a suitcase on the floor and fled from the bank.
The police immediately got many emergency calls. Thanks to the quick action of the witnesses, plainclothes police officers were able to arrest the 40-year-old Syrian, who lives in Bochum, a short time later.
The area around the bank was cordoned off. Officers wearing helmets and bulletproof vests secured the savings bank. Bomb disposal experts from the State Criminal Police investigated the bag with a robot. The fire department and emergency services were on standby.
Two suspicious objects turned out to be harmless during the investigation. “We did not find any dangerous objects,” said a police spokeswoman on Tuesday evening. The cordon on the shopping street was lifted again – the bank remained closed.
The police later confirmed that the arrested man had threatened to detonate a bomb. “Initial indications currently point to a mental illness in the suspect”, the police reported on Tuesday evening. The man apparently voluntarily underwent psychotherapeutic treatment.
Bochum-Wattenscheid: Festnahme nach Terror-Drohung in Sparkasse | Regional | BILD.de