A 40-year-old man kept police and the population in the German city of Bochum in suspense for hours on Tuesday with a bomb threat in a bank. The area around a savings bank was closed, several shops were evacuated and residents were not allowed into their apartments.
As the investigators announced in the evening, the man had entered the savings bank in the center of the Wattenscheid district in the afternoon, put down a suitcase and a bag and threatened that he would detonate a bomb. Ultimately, police arrested the man – a Syrian living in Bochum.
Evidence of mental illness
The suspicious items ultimately turned out to be harmless. “According to the current status of the investigation, there has never been any danger to uninvolved people and no injuries have been reported,” the report said. The first indications currently point to a mental illness in the man, who is voluntarily undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment.
Robot sent to branch
The officials had pointed out the large-scale operation on social networks and called on people not to come to the central pedestrian area in Wattenscheid. The police were on the spot with strong troops. Specialists from the National Criminal Investigation Department were called in and a robot was sent to the branch to further examine the items.
The shops in the vicinity of the Sparkasse branch were temporarily deserted. The Wattenscheid district is located in the west of Bochum’s city center and borders directly on Essen.
Source: Krone
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