Police launch 'major operation' after several people injured in knife attack at Hamburg train station
Several people are reported to have been injured after a knife attack at Hamburg's central train station.
A "major operation" has been launched and a suspect in the attack was arrested, police said in a post on X but they haven't given details of the number or severity of the injuries.
The identity of the suspect has also not been revealed.
Hamburg is Germany's second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.
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BBC News
19 minutes ago
- BBC News
Case of true love for Aylesbury partners in crimefighting
Working for the police takes a certain kind of personal strength, resilience and dedication - much like marriage, some might say. But one couple from Buckinghamshire are proving the two institutions can go hand in hand successfully, together clocking up a combined 83 years' service for Thames Valley and Ed Ryan, both 69 and from Aylesbury, met and fell in love as young police officers on the beat in Chesham in the late partnership has endured long work shifts, career moves and departures to raise a growing family, and the two now work as civilians within the same police investigation team. Mrs Ryan joined the force in 1978 as a WPC and met Mr Ryan when she was 24 and he was 23, when they were both stationed at Chesham. She left the force to start their family but re-joined in 2000 as a Ryan, who signed up for service aged 19 in 1975, made the move from officer to civilian with the force in 2008. Mrs Ryan recalled that when she first met her husband, she could only see the back of his head. "He was nice, he was very kind and funny, but I also thought he was a little bit of a prat," she said."It wasn't until we had a party at my living accommodation in Amersham, that I got to know him." Mr Ryan said: "It did take some time, we just got to know each other like all good stories, and then we started to go out and meet after duty."Fifteen months later, in 1980, the couple married. No one knew of their relationship at the beginning as officers could not work together if they were partners, Mrs Ryan said."When we got engaged, I had to move," she revealed. "I did question it, I said 'hang on, is it because I'm a female, why isn't he moving', and that didn't go down very well. "I was then told, you can have his breakfast ready when he comes home."Despite having to navigate the misogyny of the time, Mrs Ryan said it was a job she loved and it was her "passion"."I liked the uniform, you had to wear a skirt, people saw the uniform first, I think it was smart and you could have a bit of command," she said. Mrs Ryan said: "When we started a family, it was a case of I couldn't continue working shifts, so I had to leave," she said. But she did return. After having two boys and two girls, Mrs Ryan rejoined the force in 2000, working part-time."It still drives me," she Ryan stayed with the force and his career progressed, leading to a move into left the force as an officer but also rejoined as a civilian in 2008. "I've always liked locking up the person who committed the crime and solving the crime", he said. Thames Valley Police also paid tribute to their commitment, saying: "It is often said that policing is a family, Ed and Madge take this a little more literally."Their adaptability, resilience, and dedication to public service has been a constant throughout their professional and personal lives, and they epitomise pride in TVP."We are equally proud that they are still part of that family after so many years." Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
34 minutes ago
- BBC News
Ketamine swapped for salt as smugglers exploit Europe loophole in booming market
The customs officers at Brussels Airport were stunned. They had opened crates in the back of a lorry expecting to find a tonne of medical ketamine. But somewhere on its journey, the white powder had been switched for zigzagging hundreds of miles across Europe, the contents of the consignment had been verified five days earlier by customs officers at Schipol Airport in the Netherlands, ready for its road trip to somewhere between Amsterdam and Brussels the ketamine had vanished - the authorities believe most likely into the black market - replaced by the salt and freshly forged it is not known where the drug ended up, and no-one responsible has been caught, this case shows the increasingly elaborate methods crime gangs are using to traffic ketamine across Europe and into the exploit its classification in some countries as a legal medicine by transporting it across multiple borders to confuse the authorities. Consignments then disappear and are illegally sold as a hallucinogenic drug."It's clear that criminal organisations are misusing all these long routes," says Marc Vancoillie, head of Belgium's central directorate of investigators have uncovered at least 28 similar consignment switches - involving an estimated 28 tonnes of ketamine - since this case in 2023. Some criminal gangs are now making more money from selling ketamine than other illegal drugs such as cocaine, Mr Vancoille told us, describing the situation as an the UK, ketamine consumption has risen 85% between 2023 and 2024, wastewater analysis - sampling human waste from sewage plants to measure the scale of illicit drug use - figures show there were 53 deaths involving ketamine in 2023. It has been linked to high-profile deaths including those of Friends actor Matthew Perry and drag star The Vivienne. Abuse of the drug can also lead to cognitive problems and permanent bladder organised crime groups "are clearly stepping into this new market", says Adam Thompson from the National Crime Agency (NCA).The challenge for European law enforcement agencies is compounded by the fact that ketamine is used as a vital legitimate anaesthetic in hospitals and veterinary clinics, as well as being a popular illegal recreational on 4 Investigates has examined how organised crime groups are exploiting this dual classification. In countries such as the UK and Belgium, ketamine is classified as a in countries including Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, it is regulated as a medicine, meaning it faces less scrutiny during its import and transit."It starts off being produced for those markets and exported from countries like India," said Mr Thompson. "But then it's diverted by organised crime groups into illicit supply." Armed with this knowledge, the smugglers have developed a preferred route - shipping the drug from India, where it is legitimately produced as a medicine, into Germany, through the Netherlands and Belgium, then on to the the case of the disappearing consignment at Brussels Airport, the drug was originally flown from India to Austria. It was then driven to Germany before being flown to the Netherlands where it was unloaded again and readied for the road trip to Belgium. During all of these connections it was being moved somewhere during this last leg, it was swapped with salt - and it is thought the ketamine entered the black market for illegal another case, a container arriving at the Belgian port of Antwerp which had been verified as containing ketamine, was found to hold groups are also exploiting legal supply chains by setting up front companies to import ketamine under the guise of legitimate use, only to divert it into illicit markets once it arrives in more countries and jurisdictions it goes through, the more difficult it is to investigate, requiring liaison between law enforcement agencies, Belgian and Dutch Police told the BBC. It also helps disguise where the front company - an import company which obtains a legitimate licence - is based."They [the criminals] will put all kinds of steps - companies in different countries - in between. So it's hard for us to backtrack if we find any large quantities of ketamine," said Ch Insp Peter Jansen, a drug expert from the Dutch police. Listen: The Ketamine Trail - Paul Kenyon investigates how tonnes of the drug are getting into the UK Germany, Europe's biggest importer of ketamine, has a huge pharmaceutical industry, so large consignments are less likely to raise 2023 alone,100 tonnes of ketamine were imported from India, Mr Vancoillie says - far more than would be expected for legitimate medical and veterinary use."Between 20 to 25% will be necessary for legal purposes and not more," he told us. "It's tonnes and tonnes and tonnes that disappeared in criminal routes."European police forces say they are planning to liaise with the Indian authorities to try to tackle the problem, with Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office telling us it carries out intensive monitoring of new psychoactive substances like added it was "in close contact with national and international authorities, organisations and institutions in order to be able to anticipate and react to further developments and new trends". 'Needle in a haystack' The smuggling network sees plenty of reward in England and Wales, where an estimated 269,000 people aged 16-59 reported using ketamine in the year ending March 2024, government figures show. Among young people aged 16-24, usage has soared by 231% since 2013."Ketamine is a very cheap drug compared to some other illicit drugs," the NCA's Adam Thompson explained. "It's sold for about £20 a gram at street level, compared to £60 to £100 for cocaine."The drug is being smuggled into the UK through two main routes - concealed in small parcels sent by post, or hidden in lorries and vans arriving via ferries and the Channel Tunnel, the NCA hundreds of thousands of parcels arriving in the UK only a small percentage are spotted. It's "very easy to hide that needle in the haystack," Mr Thompson Belgium, some criminal groups are using AirBnBs to store ketamine before sending it through France to the UK, by cars, lorries or trucks, according to Mr one case, somebody reported as suspicious a group of men who were moving IKEA boxes into a van. The vehicle had been hired, which meant the authorities were able to track its prior movements back to an AirBnB in Staden, they found 480kg (1,058lbs) of ketamine, along with 117kg of cocaine, and 63kg of heroin, stored in a British nationals were eventually linked to the case and ketamine use continues to rise and trafficking methods grow more inventive, authorities across Europe are calling for greater international co-operation."It's a responsibility of agencies and countries across the globe," Mr Thompson warned, "to think about this."
The Guardian
42 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Nazi guards shot prisoners for fun at Channel Islands camp, research says
Guards at a prison camp on one of the Channel Islands entertained themselves at weekends by using prisoners for target practice, according to new evidence of Nazi atrocities committed there in the second world war. On Sundays, the SS would regularly pick about a dozen men incarcerated in Sylt, the camp they ran on Alderney, transporting them to a nearby light-gauge railway, where they tied them to tipper trucks and amused themselves by shooting them. Over the course of an hour or two, they would take aim at specific parts of a prisoner's body, wounding them repeatedly until they died. This was regular entertainment for the SS, according to research. It is among accounts of atrocities that will be revealed in Ghosts of Alderney, a forthcoming documentary about victims of the Nazi occupation of the island between 1940 and 1945. Among those interviewed by the documentary's director, Piers Secunda, are two daughters of Giorgi Zbovorski, a Ukrainian imprisoned on Alderney in 1942 for 18 months. Long before his death in 2006, he told them of the horrors he had witnessed as the SS forced prisoners to watch the target practice. Ingrid Zbovorski recalled her father's account: 'Prisoners were made to stand in formation. The guards were acting out of boredom. They would select 12 or 15 of the prisoners. They were put upside down, bound to the train wagons. The guards then started shooting at random, for their amusement. A bullet in your head or your heart and you were dead. A shot in your arm and in your leg, and you would suffer for hours.' Secunda spent five years researching the slave labourers sent to Alderney, where they endured shootings, beatings and starvation. He said: 'Zbovorski personally watched the target practice exercises happening on Sundays for the duration of the time that he was in Sylt camp. That's probably why the Germans sent a delegation from Berlin to Alderney, to find out why the death rate was so high. The head of the SS guards on Alderney, Otto Hogelow, incentivised the SS on the island to shoot prisoners. He offered 10 days' leave, extra food and cigarettes for every five prisoners shot.' Gilly Carr, a professor in conflict archaeology and Holocaust heritage at the University of Cambridge, told the Guardian: 'There are sadly so many stories from Alderney of atrocities and brutal treatment against prisoners. The wealth of evidence, of which this is a part, confirms the horrific nature of the German occupation of the island. 'While a trained historian should note this account, further questions should be asked, which cannot now be answered, before using this account to calculate the number of deaths. For example: for how long did this practice continue? Was it the same number of prisoners every time? Was Giorgi a witness every single time? This is not to dispute the account, but to interrogate it properly and to consider how it can be used.' She was also the coordinator and a member of the Lord Pickles Alderney expert review, which concluded last year that more than 1,000 slave labourers are likely to have died on British soil at the hands of the Nazis, hundreds more than were officially recorded in historical archives. Zbovorski was taken to Alderney after trying to flee forced labour in Austria. In 1944, he was sent to Belgium to work on V1 missile sites, but was among Ukrainians who persuaded a German soldier of Polish nationality not to shoot them if they ran into the forest. Secunda said: 'The Pole duly fired his machine-gun into the air, but a German guard shot three of them in the back, killing them. Giorgi and two other prisoners were able to find a place to hide in the house of a Belgian farmer. When Belgium was liberated by the Allies a few weeks later, Giorgi weighed only 40 kilos.' Zbovorski remained in Belgium, employed by the farmer. Ghosts of Alderney – Hitler's Island Slaves, a production from Wild Dog, a British independent company, will be released in the UK later this year.
