The cause of the explosion is still unclear. “We are investigating in all directions,” said a police spokeswoman. State security is also involved.
In an explosion in downtown Oberhausen on Tuesday night, the Left Party office and several shops were severely damaged.
The detonation happened at around 3.20 a.m. at Friedensplatz, said a police spokeswoman from Essen. Nobody was injured. Because a politically motivated act cannot be ruled out, state security is also involved in the investigation. The parliamentary group leader of the left in Oberhausen, Yusuf Karacelik, told the German Press Agency: “It was clearly an attack on us.”
The Federal Chair of the Left, Janine Wissler, said: “This is a completely new dimension of attacks against our offices, human lives are endangered here.” “We have to assume a targeted attack from the right. In the past, the office was already in the sights of the right-wing scene, was covered with neo-Nazi stickers and received threatening letters, »explained Wissler.
The police did not commit themselves in this way. “What triggered the explosion is still unclear. We are investigating in all directions,” said the police spokeswoman. It is clear that the explosion took place inside a building.
The head of the North Rhine-Westphalia Left Party, Jules El-Khatib, called for a “complete investigation” into the explosion. Offices of the left were not affected by attacks for the first time, he told the dpa.
