In Wuppertal there was a major police operation at the main train station. The background was a tip about a suspicious person. However, it was not the RAF terrorist they were looking for.
There was a major police operation at the main train station in Wuppertal on Saturday afternoon. As “Radio Wuppertal” reports, a spokesman said that it was an arrest of a person who was on the train. According to the police, there was no danger to other people.
As WDR reports, the operation is over. Train passengers reported a suspicious man to the train staff, who called the police. The man was taken into custody. Witness statements reported to “Bild” that it was supposed to be the wanted RAF terrorist Ernst-Volker Staub. As the police announced in the evening, the suspicion was not confirmed. The man and his companion were released.
“Indications of a very dangerous person”
According to media reports, it was announced on one of the affected trains that an explosive device had been found. The police have not yet confirmed this.
As “Bild” reports, the officers surrounded a train that had pulled in. A police spokesman told the newspaper: “There were indications of a very dangerous person. She was arrested without resistance. We are checking whether the person arrested is the person wanted nationwide. No one was injured.”
The program “Case number XY … unsolved” launched a new search call for three ex-RAF terrorists who are still wanted on Wednesday.
The police had completely closed Wuppertal main station for the arrest. The reason was initially said to be a “safety disturbance on the track”. The route between Hagen and Cologne or Düsseldorf was affected.
The Verden public prosecutor’s office accuses the three wanted Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists of attempted murder and several robberies. So far there has been no trace of Ernst-Volker Staub, Daniela Marie Luise Klette and Burkhard Garweg.
RAF terrorists kept the Federal Republic in suspense
The three went into hiding in the 1990s. DNA evidence led investigators to the conclusion that the three could be responsible for robberies of cash transport and supermarkets between 1999 and 2016.
Crime scenes included Osnabrück, Wolfsburg and Stuhr in Lower Saxony as well as Hagen and Bochum-Wattenscheid in North Rhine-Westphalia. The public prosecutor’s office assumes that the attacks were not politically motivated. The accused are said to have committed the crimes in order to get money.
The left-wing extremist organization Red Army Faction (RAF) was considered the epitome of terror and murder in the Federal Republic for decades. In total, the RAF murdered more than 30 people and more than 200 were injured. Victims included Federal Prosecutor General Siegfried Buback, Dresdner Bank boss Jürgen Ponto and employer president Hanns Martin Schleyer. The RAF disbanded in 1998.
Dust, burdock and Garweg are assigned to the so-called third RAF generation. Representatives of the generation are said to have killed the then head of Deutsche Bank, Alfred Herrhausen, and the head of the Treuhand, Detlev Karsten Rohwedder.