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Twelve-year-old hurt in mailbox bombing out of danger

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Twelve-year-old hurt in mailbox bombing out of danger
Photo: DPA

She nearly lost her arm in a mailbox bombing in November, but a 12-year-old Berlin girl will likely be released from intensive care before Christmas, news agency DPA reported on Thursday.

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The girl identified by the German press only as Charlyn is thought to have been a victim of an attack by her step-uncle, who was recently arrested.

Doctors were able to save her arm from the blast wounds after putting her in an artificial coma for several days after the bombing. She has now begun physical therapy, Andreas Eisenschenk, head of hand transplant and microsurgery at the Marzahn clinic where Charlyn is being treated said.

“Everything is healing well and there have been no complications so far,” Eisenschenk said. “The little one has been very lucky.”

The alleged bomber, 32-year-old Peter John, was recently arrested after a nation-wide manhunt and currently he now sits in jail awaiting charges. He allegedly placed a bomb in a letterbox at her family's home in Berlin’s Rudow district that exploded as she opened it.

Later that week, police located the booby-trapped red BMW of the suspect while Charlyn remained in critical condition. The suspect also allegedly put a bomb on the roof of the car of Charlyn’s father on the same day of the mailbox blast, but he handed it over to police after it did not explode.

Police believe the bombing was part of a long-running family feud. The father reportedly revealed during police questioning that he suspected someone in his extended family might want to harm his immediate family.

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