Berlin mosque ablaze after suspected arson attack
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Published: 11 Mar, 2018 CET.
Updated: Sun 11 Mar 2018 08:54 CET
A mosque in Berlin was hit by an arson attack early on Sunday morning, hours after police said they were launching a probe into a similar attack on a mosque in Stuttgart.
At shortly after 2am on Sunday morning, the fire department was called to the Koca Sinan Camii mosque on Kühleweinstraße, Berlin, which was on fire after a suspected arson attack. By 3am the blaze was under control.
The blaze follows a similar suspected arson attack at a mosque in the town of Lauffen on Thursday night, which caused material damage before the imam managed to extinguish the blaze. There were no casualties.
Stuttgart prosecutors and local police said on Saturday that five people were being sought for attempted murder in connection to the Lauffen attack.
In a joint statement, they said: "several Molotov cocktails were thrown into the mosque through an open window," adding that they were treating the incident as a possible racist or anti-Islamic attack.
Germany is home to some three million ethnic Turks. On Saturday the leader of the community, Gokay Sofuoglu, denounced the incident as an "inhuman crime" and an "act of terrorism".
There were 950 attacks in Germany last year on Muslims or places linked to Islam, according to the interior ministry.
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At shortly after 2am on Sunday morning, the fire department was called to the Koca Sinan Camii mosque on Kühleweinstraße, Berlin, which was on fire after a suspected arson attack. By 3am the blaze was under control.
The blaze follows a similar suspected arson attack at a mosque in the town of Lauffen on Thursday night, which caused material damage before the imam managed to extinguish the blaze. There were no casualties.
Stuttgart prosecutors and local police said on Saturday that five people were being sought for attempted murder in connection to the Lauffen attack.
In a joint statement, they said: "several Molotov cocktails were thrown into the mosque through an open window," adding that they were treating the incident as a possible racist or anti-Islamic attack.
Germany is home to some three million ethnic Turks. On Saturday the leader of the community, Gokay Sofuoglu, denounced the incident as an "inhuman crime" and an "act of terrorism".
There were 950 attacks in Germany last year on Muslims or places linked to Islam, according to the interior ministry.
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