hatzel
2nd March 2011, 18:42
Two US servicemen have died after a gunman opened fire on a bus carrying American military personnel at Frankfurt Airport, police say.
The US Air Force said two of its airmen died and two were wounded. One of the dead is said to have been the driver.
A 21-year-old man from Kosovo was held after the shooting in front of Terminal 2 at Europe's second-biggest airport.
The airport is near the large US military base at Ramstein, a hub for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says that after the shooting, which took place in the middle of the afternoon, the gunman fled into the terminal building, where he was arrested by German police.
Police spokesman Jurgen Linker told AFP news agency: "Everything happened on board the bus. The suspected gunman has been arrested. There are two dead and two seriously injured."
The gunman's motive for the attack is not yet clear
Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi said in an interview that German police had identified the suspect as a Kosovan citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica.
"This is a devastating and a tragic event," Mr Rexhepi said, reports the Associated Press news agency.
"We are trying to find out was this something that was organised or what was the nature of the attack."
The interior minister for the German state of Hesse, Boris Rhein, confirmed the gunman was from Kosovo.
"Whether the incident was linked to terrorism I cannot say at this stage," he told journalists.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the "terrible incident".
"I would like to say how saddened I am by this incident and I would like to assure you that the German government will do our utmost to investigate what happened," she told journalists in Berlin.
Four Islamists were convicted in March last year in Germany for plotting to bomb targets including Ramstein Air Base.
Last month the German parliament extended by one year the military mission in Afghanistan.
Germany has 4,860 troops there, despite domestic polls suggesting the mission's unpopularity.
Source (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12621832)
No proof as of yet that there's anything political about it, but just in case any such news appears, let's chuck it in here! Also, could there be any impact on the right, with this being a non-German perp...?
The US Air Force said two of its airmen died and two were wounded. One of the dead is said to have been the driver.
A 21-year-old man from Kosovo was held after the shooting in front of Terminal 2 at Europe's second-biggest airport.
The airport is near the large US military base at Ramstein, a hub for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says that after the shooting, which took place in the middle of the afternoon, the gunman fled into the terminal building, where he was arrested by German police.
Police spokesman Jurgen Linker told AFP news agency: "Everything happened on board the bus. The suspected gunman has been arrested. There are two dead and two seriously injured."
The gunman's motive for the attack is not yet clear
Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi said in an interview that German police had identified the suspect as a Kosovan citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica.
"This is a devastating and a tragic event," Mr Rexhepi said, reports the Associated Press news agency.
"We are trying to find out was this something that was organised or what was the nature of the attack."
The interior minister for the German state of Hesse, Boris Rhein, confirmed the gunman was from Kosovo.
"Whether the incident was linked to terrorism I cannot say at this stage," he told journalists.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the "terrible incident".
"I would like to say how saddened I am by this incident and I would like to assure you that the German government will do our utmost to investigate what happened," she told journalists in Berlin.
Four Islamists were convicted in March last year in Germany for plotting to bomb targets including Ramstein Air Base.
Last month the German parliament extended by one year the military mission in Afghanistan.
Germany has 4,860 troops there, despite domestic polls suggesting the mission's unpopularity.
Source (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12621832)
No proof as of yet that there's anything political about it, but just in case any such news appears, let's chuck it in here! Also, could there be any impact on the right, with this being a non-German perp...?