Latest news with #LowerSaxony
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Man rescued after being trapped for 90 minutes under a train armrest while looking for his Airpod
A man had to be rescued by no less than 11 firefighters after he got trapped under a train armrest while searching for his Airpod. The traveller was stuck for 90 minutes before the emergency services sawed off the armrest so he could get free. He had been rummaging between the seat and the train's side panel but his arm swelled up and became jammed in the gap on Friday evening. A luggage rack and a seat also had to be hacked away with a heavy hydraulic rescue device to liberate the man - who has not been named. Much to the amusement of other passengers, firefighters had to put up a screen so that curious travellers on the German regional train could not take photos of the unfortunately wedged-in man. The train was held at the platform at Lehrte station near Hannover, Lower Saxony, for more than an hour before the was then rescued beneath the seat. The other passengers had to get replacement services to continue their journey to Brunswick, Bild reported. Police were also in attendance while the platform had been cordoned off. Emergency services were on standby and treated the man once he became free. This is not the first time someone has had to be broken free after getting stuck on a train. In 2019, an 11-year-old boy had to be rescued by firefighters after he got his head stuck under a seat on a high-speed train in south-east China. The unfortunate incident happened on New Year's Day on the G636 train travelling to Shangrao, Jiangxi province, when the boy crawled under the seat in front of him to pick up a water bottle. However, his head got wedged in the gap between the floor and the seat, leaving him trapped for about 30 minutes. The boy got trapped at about noon, when the train was travelling from Yingtan North station to Shangrao station. Staff members on the train immediately alerted emergency services to stand by at the next station. Footage of the incident shows the embarrassed boy sprawled on the train floor, unable to move as rescuers boarded the train to his aid. 'The boy was trying to retrieve his water bottle but got trapped under the seat,' a spokesperson for the Shangrao Fire Department told reporters, adding that rescuers freed the child in two minutes. Thanks to the firefighters' swift efforts, the train was not delayed and departed Shangrao station on time. The boy was unhurt, according to The Paper. According to the report, the boy was travelling with his family, who were on their way back home to Wuyuan county after celebrating New Year's in Nanchang city, about two hours away by train.
South China Morning Post
7 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Suspect was released from psychiatric care a day before Hamburg attack, officials say
The suspect in the recent knife attack at Hamburg's central train station was released from a psychiatric hospital on the day before the stabbing, officials said on Sunday. The 39-year-old woman had been treated in a psychiatric institution in the northern German city of Cuxhaven for three weeks after she was found in a state of helplessness in early May, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in the state of Lower Saxony said. The woman, a German national, was detained on Friday evening after allegedly stabbing people at random at the busy transport hub , injuring 18 people. She has admitted to the act in front of a magistrate, a spokeswoman for prosecutors said on Sunday. The suspects, who comes from the northern state of Lower Saxony, has been known to police since 2021, a spokesman for the state Interior Ministry said. 'She appeared at police stations several times, showing clear signs of mental illness,' the spokesman said.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Suspect released from psychiatric care one day before Hamburg attack
The suspect in the recent knife attack at Hamburg's central train station was released from a psychiatric hospital on the day prior to the stabbing, officials said on Sunday. The 39-year-old woman had been treated in a psychiatric institution in the northern German city of Cuxhaven for three weeks after she was found in a state of helplessness in early May, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in the state of Lower Saxony said. According to the clinic, the woman was released because there were no medical findings at the time of her discharge to justify further treatment. Authorities did not comment on the nature of her illness, citing privacy concerns and medical confidentiality. Before patients are released from a psychiatric ward, doctors have to consider whether they could pose a danger to themselves or others. A total of 18 people were injured in the stabbing at Hamburg's central station on Friday evening, with the suspect arrested at the scene. A magistrate later ordered her to be placed in psychiatric care.
Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Nord Stream saga shows German leaders' magical thinking and economical approach to the truth
Gerhard Schröder looked every bit the elder statesman, and in no way a political pariah, when he appeared this week in Lower Saxony's state parliament in Hanover . The 81-year-old ex-chancellor, lawyer and Russian energy lobbyist has been suffering from burnout, according to his doctor. But Tuesday's election of a new Lower Saxon state premier – a role Schröder filled for eight years until his election as chancellor in 1998 – was a special occasion worth rallying for. 'I'm still here,' joked a grinning Schröder. Where Schröder still isn't is at a parliamentary inquiry into the Nord Stream gas pipelines. READ MORE One of Schröder's final acts as chancellor was to green light Nord Stream 1, two 1,200km-long pipelines carrying Russian natural gas under the Baltic Sea. After leaving office Schröder, a close friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin , joined one of the pipeline consortium's supervisory boards. Since then the Hanover-based lawyer has doubled as a lobbyist for Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom. Though he has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine , he has held back in his criticism of Putin and, as a result, many people actively avoid him. Not so in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the pipelines made land in Germany A state parliamentary committee extended an invitation to Schröder to explain his version of the Nord Stream drama. Its last act to date was a series of unexplained explosions in September 2022 that damaged three of the four undersea pipelines. Rather than answer questions in person, Schröder said in a letter leaked this week that he was too ill to attend the inquiry – at least until the end of the year. Instead of personal testimony he sent the parliamentary investigation a four-page written overview of why he 'was and remains positive' towards the gas pipelines. 'During my time as chancellor it was always clear to me that Germany is an industrial country lacking raw materials, whose prosperity can only be increased and maintained if it is, and remains, competitive on global markets,' he wrote. 'This was always rational and of benefit for Germany and these decisions did not become wrong through the terrible war in Ukraine.' The ex-chancellor signed off his letter by wishing the committee 'lots of success with its research into, and the free and fair assessment of, the historical truth'. While the inquiry has no powers to compel him to attend, several media investigations have exposed the magical thinking – and economical approach to the truth – that characterised many German political leaders' approach to Nord Stream. Government files released to the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily, for instance, show just how deeply Angela Merkel was involved in the geopolitics of – and EU lobbying for – the second, Nord Stream 2, project. This despite her mantrathat the pipeline – majority controlled by Gazprom with involvement of energy companies Shell, Eon and others – was a private, commercial endeavour. Files show how Merkel chancellery officials worked steadily and silently to smooth Nord Stream 2's political path, against considerable political opposition from the European Commission and Germany's eastern neighbours. Throughout the Nord Stream files, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, are handwritten remarks and questions by Merkel in green chancellor ink. The chancellery's interest in pursuing the project remained considerable and consistent even after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March 2014. In July 2015, as Nord Stream 2 began to take shape, officials told Merkel the project 'is to be welcomed, from both a German and Europe perspective'. 'From a position of energy policy, Germany cannot afford to take a position against Nord Stream [2],' the officials wrote. Merkel was informed of – and apparently backed – efforts by German officials in Brussels to prevent greater involvement of the European Commission. The commission took a critical stance on the bilateral project after taking on board concerns of Poland and Ukraine. In particular they argued that all such pipelines gave Moscow even greater leverage to meets its western European energy contractual requirements while opening potential to use energy as a weapon by throttling deliveries in the east. Chancellery officials warned Merkel that it was crucial to quell growing dissent, but that being too obvious about it 'could be interpreted as intervention for Nord Stream' – with the real risk of political blowback for Merkel and her claim not to be involved. In a handwritten note from January 25th, 2018, she asked officials to 'put together the requested material' on finding allies to work together on tackling the commission. Rather than openly oppose the commission, chancellery officials decided on a strategy of 'critical questioning ... to avoid possible political damage from an early, public rejection'. Merkel was also involved in granting the state guarantee sought by the Nord Stream 2 consortium in 2018. Rather than appear to be handing Putin a multibillion gift in advance of talks, she backed a plan to postpone political assessment of the guarantee application until after their meeting. [ As NordStream operator fights legal action in Europe, speculation of US-Russian pipeline partnership grows Opens in new window ] Asked how her hands-on Nord Stream approach, indicated by the traces of green ink in the files, tallies with her hands-off narrative, Merkel's office replied that 'the files ... are in the chancellery, please direct your questions to the chancellery'.
