Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
Police have arrested a 17-year-old schoolgirl on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after police found evidence that suggested she created a home-made bomb that killed a teenage fireman.
The Fire Brigade had been called to the property in the municipality of Lienen in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state after locals reported they could he smell gas. When firefighter Stefan M., 19, went to the basement, everything blew up. He was killed on the spot.
Police suspect the teenage girl, named in reports only as Lea K. due to local privacy laws, placed a burning candle in the basement and left a 20-litre gas bottle with the valve open.
Investigators have not yet given a motive for the schoolgirl’s alleged actions but say they have found incriminating evidence on her mobile phone and DNA evidence on the gas flask.
The explosion took place on 8th February, but the girl has only just been named as a suspect now.
Locals told local media that her father often “messed with the neighbours” but that Lea was “nice and shy.”
Local media report that the girl and her family were not in the building at the time having left a short while previously.
The firefighter was caught off-guard by the explosion and his colleagues said in his obituary: “Under the mass of rubble, any help that could have been provided would have been too late for him.”
The obituary went on: “At just 19, Stefan left us much too early. We are 170 women and men, but the gap that is now present in our ranks is unmistakable.
“With Stefan we have lost a highly committed comrade and friend, somebody for whom the fire brigade was everything.”
Chief Prosecutor Martin Botzenhardt, 47, said that “WhatsApp messages were found” that incriminated the schoolgirl.
The girl, meanwhile. denies all the allegations and said she had never seen the gas bottle, and had no explanation for how her DNA got there.
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