Carnage at German church service

[DoYouEverWonder]

3 April, 2005

A man wielding a sword has killed one person and injured others during a church service in Germany, police say.

Police said they found "grisly" scenes after the afternoon attack in the southern city of Stuttgart.

"Severed limbs were lying all round the church," a police spokeswoman said, adding that one man was arrested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4406821.stm

[Coventina]

1. How horrible! My condolences to victims and their families

Wow.

[puddycat]

2. BAN SWORDS! Swords kill people! Swords are bad, bad, bad. NT

[leesa]

4. Oh stop trying to pretend that the easy availability of guns is not a

problem in this country.

[oneold1-4u]

10. guns available?

Much more than doctors, thank goodness, since doctors kill more people in this country!! Doctors, medicines, hospitals and therapy are far more dangerous because people know guns kill, but seek medical to "live" better.

[DoNotRefill]

11. Doctors kill more people each year....

than guns and cars combined.

[DoNotRefill]

12. the problem....

is that criminals can get guns. Of course, criminals can get cocaine, too, which is pretty much completely banned.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that the problem is criminals, not guns and drugs?

[Dave Reynolds]

31. You and I would say that,

but the pro-ban kids will not agree.

[Griffy]

9. He killed only 1.. Imagine had he used an gun! .. thats the point! nt

[DS1]

32. Stop making sense

Gun nuts don't get it.

[Pert_UK]

35. Thanks for using this tragedy to higlight your own fucking ignorance.

Moron.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. I've heard two more have died, but no link yet. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Turns out to be no big deal

just brown people killing brown people. :sarcasm off:

Police spokesman Hermann Karpf said that the attack came as members of the local Tamil community were gathered in the church.

"The suspected perpetrator was arrested. He is believed to be a Tamil, and the service was also a Tamil service," Mr Karpf was quoted as saying.

Police used pepper spray to overpower the man, according to Germany's Spiegel.

About 40 people are believed to have been in the church, most of them thought to be members of the Tamil community who originally come from southern India and Sri Lanka.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4406821.stm

[Kellanved]

8. AFAIK, no;

one woman is still in intensive care; according to the lcoal media, it doesn't look good for her.

The suspect also had a gun with him.

[coffeenap]

6. So sad--Tamils are who suffered most in India when the

tsunami hit. (I have a Tamil friend who was 4 miles away from the coast when it hit--her birthplace is gone.) Can't help but wonder if maybe this perpetrator suffered terrible loss.

[AnneD]

7. My one experience with a Tamil family...

involved attending a wedding anniversery party of my SIL's friend. I was treated like an honoured guest. The party included a church service in the house(interesting hearing familiar hymns in Tamil language). They were a close knit and devout Christian family and I treasure them opening their home to me. I am saddened to hear of such evil.

[DoNotRefill]

13. Where there's a will, there's a way.

my condolences to those hurt and killed and their families...

[thebigidea]

19. i'm sure they appreciate your attempt at tying this into...

... a cheap point about gun control.

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

21. Or your just plain cheap point about squat.

[Moderator]

14. kick to combine

[Up2Late]

15. Woman killed in (German) church sword attack (The Guardian)

Woman killed in church sword attack

Krysia Diver in Stuttgart
Monday April 4, 2005
The Guardian

A woman was killed and three people seriously injured when a man wielding a samurai sword ran amok in a German church yesterday. Reports of the attack at the Methodist Christus church, in Stuttgart, shook the normally quiet local Tamil community. The alleged attacker, a 25-year-old man of Tamil origin, was arrested. A police investigator, Michael Kuehner, said the man had been motivated by "personal reasons", adding that he had made unspecified threats before Easter.

The attack took place at the start of an afternoon service for around 65 Tamil people, including many children. A police spokesman, Hermann Karpf, said: "He is believed to be a Tamil, and the service was also a Tamil service." The church was cordoned off last night. A large pool of blood, rubber gloves and clumps of hair lay on a street corner. Police confirmed that a 43-year-old woman had died, and that three other victims had suffered serious chest, heart and arm injuries.

Police used pepper spray to overcome the suspect. "As far as we know, there is no political background to the case," Mr Karpf said. A witness, who asked not to be named, was sitting on his balcony near the church when the attack took place: "I heard screaming and crying and when I looked up, there were people covered in blood running out of the church.

(more at link above)

[Dharma_Bum]

16. Holy $hit!

Thats terrible!

[iamjoy]

17. The Gun Nuts Will Love This

They will point out how murder happens even without guns, and, anyway, this is why we should all carry concealed weapons, because then some one could have shot this sicko.

[Kellanved]

18. Won't fly, as the suspect had a gun.

n/t

[Up2Late]

20. Hey, I heard "Ich bin ein Berliner" meant, " I'm a Jelly filled Donut

Maybe you can clear this up, Did most Germans understand it that way, when President Kennedy said that, or did they understand what he was trying to say, "I'm a Berliner too."?:shrug:

[Kellanved]

22. I even wrote a Demopedia entry about it ;-)

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner


:hi:

[Up2Late]

23. Oh, O.K., thanks for that, one more question please...

...what type of food is a Nürnberger? All I know Nürnberg is the "War Crimes" trials.

Note: my Grand Father was from Danzik, but I don't speak any German.

[Kellanved]

26. As with most things German: a sausage

100% low-fat, marjoram seasoned coarse pork (no "sausage meat") in a sheep casing.

[reorg]

28. dissenting view from Germany

Hi - I can only hope that Kellanved had nothing to do with this demopedia article because it is total crap.

First: It is false that jellied (or not jellied) doughnuts are called "Pfannkuchen" in Berlin. The correct name is "Berliner Pfannkuchen", and "Berliner" is the more commonly used short version. In other regions, e.g. where I live, this thing is called "Kreppel".

Second: Whoever may have come up with it -- the transposition of "civis Romanus sum" into "ich bin ein Berliner" IMO is a poor attempt to appear erudite. It does not translate very well. While "civis Romanus sum" -- according to what I read -- means "I am a subject of the Roman empire and shall not fall under any other jurisdiction than Rome's", Kennedy -- anticipating Avril Lavigne, probably intended to say something like "It's a damn cold war, I don't know who you are, but I... I'm with you".

Third: Yes, it is certainly true that nobody misunderstood Kennedy when he said he was a Berliner. And yet, the phrase sounds quite odd -- it is not something a native speaker would say in this situation. "Berliner" in this context designates place of origin or residence. Nothing more.


"Nürnberger" is a kind of very short "Bratwurst", I believe. They come in pairs, but you actually need to eat several of them to get a fill. They taste like "Thüringer" Bratwursts, which are much longer.

Regards,
reorg (a "Frankfurter", not a "Wiener").

[Up2Late]

30. I hope we will not starting a FW here, but here is a bit of trivia...

...reguarding the "Frankfurter."

I believe it was WW1 when here, in the U.S. someone, not sure who, decided to start calling "Frankfurters" "Hot Dogs and "Wieners", as a way to distance our selves from the German Kaiser. :smoke:

Kind of like what the U.S. Congress did with the ridiculous name change of "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries." :eyes: Which everyone ignores.

Just more proof that * and his WH have yet to have an original thought.

[reorg]

33. I never knew that!

So because of some people in the US who were so uninformed as not to be able to tell a Wiener from a Frankfurter (I think Wikipedia is correct on this one) -- some Americans could mistake me for a hot dog when I say "I am a Frankfurter"? The confusion. It knows no bounds. BTW, I just learned that hotdog is an import from Germany, too :+


Etymologically correct hot dog

The original name (in German) was hot "dachshund" which, according to Wikipedia, was too alien a notion for some Americans, so they changed it to "dog" :shrug: Was this meant to be a sly attempt at dishing it out on German shepards? As if someone could confuse a (real) dog with a tiny little sausage!

The recipe for "French fries" is actually Belgian, as you might know, and Belgium is still the best place to buy them, I believe. The very best fried potatos I ever ate I got at a food stall while hitch-hiking through Belgium. The actual name is "pommes frites" or just "pommes" ...

So the name change doesn't really catch on? Always struck me as kind of silly anyway: how is replacing "French" with "Freedom" supposed to be an insult? They practically invented freedom, wasn't "freedom, equality, brotherhood" the battle cry of their revolution? Just looked it up and found that only the Nazi puppet Vichy regime changed this national motto, into "Travail, Famille, Patrie (Work, Family and Country)", go figure.



on edit: image added

[Up2Late]

34. You're probably right, because the words...

...Wiener and Frankfurter are used interchangeably here. I think most here think of or use Wiener as slang for Frankfurter or Hot Dog.

Are they different and/or from different towns in Germany? How many different Sausages are their or are common in Germany?:shrug:

Yes, I did know French Fries are originally from Belgium, and No, Freedom Fries did not catch on, most here know it was stupid and done for bogus, political reasons.:crazy:

Last Summer, when I was in S. France, I told a Waiter about this, he had not even heard of this. We both agree how stupid it was though.:eyes:

[leftofthedial]

24. Mass asphyxiation at German church

when gun nut farts in the front pew.

[Roland99]

25. Didn't someone attack somewhere in Germany last year w/a sword??

Maybe it was here in the states....

[slackmaster]

27. England

Google "Samurai sword attack UK".

[Roland99]

29. Thanks

[Turley]

36. Thoughts on this from Germany

1) German cops are really good at non-lethal methods. US cops would have pumped him full of lead.

2) The recent carnage at a US High School got front page billing and loads of coverage in the German press. In contrast, this story, as well as the Brazill massacre of 30 innocents, was relegated to the last pageof my local paper. They really love to hype our shortcomings.