Police in Germany have detained two men suspected of an arson attack early Sunday against a newspaper that republished the cartoons of French weekly Charlie Hebdo. The newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost said on its website the overnight arson attack destroyed several files in its archive, but didn’t injure anyone.
Hamburg police said it had detained the two young men near the newspaper building. Police spokeswoman Karina Sadowsky said several rocks and a Molotov cocktail found in the newspaper’s archive in the basement of the building.
She didn’t identify or give any further details about the suspects. A spokesman for the Hamburg fire department said they were first alerted when a security company called them after the building’s fire alarms went off, shortly after 2 a.m.
“We quickly managed to extinguish the fire,” spokesman Joern Bartsch said. The Hamburg tabloid newspaper published the Charlie Hebdo cartoons the day after the attack against the newspaper in Paris to express its solidarity with the slain journalists.
Several other national and local German newspapers also published the cartoons. They are now getting police protection. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Sunday called on all citizens to be vigilant in their everyday lives in response to the attacks in neighboring France.
Media reports suggest rocks were thrown through the cellar windows of the building in the early hours of Sunday morning, followed by an “incendiary device”. Two rooms were damaged in the fire.
Additional Reporting by Associated Press.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.