Hamburg shooting: Unborn baby among those killed at Jehovah’s Witness building

Published

2 years ago

March 10, 2023

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The unborn baby of a woman who was seven months pregnant was among those killed during a mass shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness building in the German city of Hamburg.

Police identified the gunman was Philipp F, a 35-year-old German with no prior offences who had been a member of the congregation – but had left 18 months ago with “ill feelings”.

They also revealed an anonymous letter had been sent to officers in January saying the attacker should not be allowed to have weapons and that he might be suffering from a mental illness.

Two police officers visited the gunman’s apartment in February after receiving the anonymous letter to perform a check.

Eight people died in the incident, including the attacker who took his own life.

Officials also said:

The seven victims included four men and two women and the unborn baby that was seven months. Police confirmed he was not related to any of the victims. All victims are German.
Eight people were wounded, four of them seriously. Six of the eight injured are German, one is Ugandan and one is Ukrainian.
There were 50 people in the congregation at the time of the shooting.

At a news conference, Hamburg’s interior minister Andy Grote said the lone gunman in the attack ran to the floor above where it took place when police arrived and took his own life.

Police also said that before the attacker went into the building, he had shot 10 times at a woman in a car outside in the carpark – but she managed to get away.

Mr Grote called it an “horrific crime”.

He said it was “something we’ve not experienced in the past – we see it on TV, we see it elsewhere, we’ve never seen it happen in our city”.

Police were alerted at 9.04pm local time on Thursday to the attack at the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Kingdom Hall in the Gross Borstel district of Germany’s second largest city.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, described the shooting as “a brutal act of violence”.

World

Elon Musk hints 80-hour-a-week DOGE job for ‘high-IQ revolutionaries’ will be unpaid

Published

2 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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Elon Musk hints 80-hour-a-week DOGE job for 'high-IQ revolutionaries' will be unpaid

“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.

The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.

The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.

“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.

“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.

“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”

In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.

“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.

“What a great deal!”

When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.

Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”

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At least 10 dead after fire rips through retirement home in Spain

Published

2 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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At least 10 dead after fire rips through retirement home in Spain

At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.

A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.

They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.

Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.

The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.

The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.

All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.

Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.

It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.

The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.

World

At least 10 dead after fire rips through retirement home in Spain

Published

8 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.

A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.

They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.

Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.

The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.