Düsseldorf/Essen (dpa/lnw) – After the shots were fired at an adjoining building of the Old Synagogue in Essen, the public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf took over the direction of the investigation. “Based on the picture of the crime,” one assumes an “extremist and anti-Semitist motivated act,” senior public prosecutor Holger Heming told the German Press Agency on Monday. There is sufficient initial suspicion that the Attorney General’s office, as the central office for the prosecution of terrorism, is conducting the investigation.
Among other things, evidence from witnesses would continue to be collected, a police spokesman from Essen said on Monday morning. According to dpa information, the older damage to the metal roof of the new synagogue discovered on Saturday occurred at least a month ago and already showed signs of rust. In both cases nobody was injured. It is currently unclear whether there is a connection between the events at the two synagogues.
On the night of Friday, shots were fired at the former rabbi’s house at the old synagogue in the city center of Essen. The old synagogue belongs to the city and, unlike the new synagogue, which is about a kilometer away as the crow flies, is not used by the Jewish community for services.
