Rise in false threats after German school shooting
Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:55pm GMT
By Kerstin Gehmlich
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have received more than half a dozen threats of violence at schools since a teen-ager went on a deadly rampage in southwest Germany on Wednesday, officials said.
Authorities have been on alert since 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer grabbed a Beretta pistol out of his father's bedroom and killed 15 people, including 12 at his former school, in the town of Winnenden near Stuttgart, before killing himself.
Friday, police closed a school in Ilsfeld, some 30 km (20 miles) northwest of Winnenden, after finding a warning in an Internet chatroom that a shooting spree was planned there.
Teachers and pupils were kept out of the secondary school in the morning, but after searching the premises with sniffer dogs, police said nothing suspicious had been found.
In nearby Esslingen, a 20-year old was arrested Thursday after he threatened on the Internet to go on a rampage.
In the town of Wendlingen, police were alerted that a 15-year old had written the words "shooting spree" with chalk in his schoolyard, and a school in southwestern Freiburg was briefly evacuated after a bomb threat Thursday, police said.
Officials said they had received more than half a dozen threats since Kretschmer's massacre Wednesday.
Dutch police said an 18-year-old male had threatened to carry out a shooting at a southern Dutch school Friday.
He was arrested and schools and child care centres in the city of Breda were closed after the threat was made via the Internet, Dutch media reported. A Dutch police spokesman said the suspect told police that it had been a joke.
German police said they still had no clear idea about Kretschmer's motives.
Officials were investigating a report by the regional interior ministry that he had posted a message in an Internet chatroom saying he planned to go to his former school with weapons and stage a "proper barbecue."
"An examination of his computer showed that the chat entry was not made from there," a police spokesman said.
Police planned to question two people who had pointed investigators to the chat entry, which was supposed to have been made on the night before the attack.
(Additional reporting by Oliver Denzer)
(Reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:55pm GMT
By Kerstin Gehmlich
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have received more than half a dozen threats of violence at schools since a teen-ager went on a deadly rampage in southwest Germany on Wednesday, officials said.
Authorities have been on alert since 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer grabbed a Beretta pistol out of his father's bedroom and killed 15 people, including 12 at his former school, in the town of Winnenden near Stuttgart, before killing himself.
Friday, police closed a school in Ilsfeld, some 30 km (20 miles) northwest of Winnenden, after finding a warning in an Internet chatroom that a shooting spree was planned there.
Teachers and pupils were kept out of the secondary school in the morning, but after searching the premises with sniffer dogs, police said nothing suspicious had been found.
In nearby Esslingen, a 20-year old was arrested Thursday after he threatened on the Internet to go on a rampage.
In the town of Wendlingen, police were alerted that a 15-year old had written the words "shooting spree" with chalk in his schoolyard, and a school in southwestern Freiburg was briefly evacuated after a bomb threat Thursday, police said.
Officials said they had received more than half a dozen threats since Kretschmer's massacre Wednesday.
Dutch police said an 18-year-old male had threatened to carry out a shooting at a southern Dutch school Friday.
He was arrested and schools and child care centres in the city of Breda were closed after the threat was made via the Internet, Dutch media reported. A Dutch police spokesman said the suspect told police that it had been a joke.
German police said they still had no clear idea about Kretschmer's motives.
Officials were investigating a report by the regional interior ministry that he had posted a message in an Internet chatroom saying he planned to go to his former school with weapons and stage a "proper barbecue."
"An examination of his computer showed that the chat entry was not made from there," a police spokesman said.
Police planned to question two people who had pointed investigators to the chat entry, which was supposed to have been made on the night before the attack.
(Additional reporting by Oliver Denzer)
(Reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
