Germany Car Ramming Attack Related to Clan Crime Dispute, Not Terror, Says Police

Police are investigating attempted homicide after a car was repeatedly driven into a group of pedestrians in a German town, allegedly in relation to ‘clan’ crime families in the area.

Five people were seriously injured in the town of Neustadt am Rübenberge, near Hanover in Lower Saxony after a motorist repeatedly drove a BMW sports saloon into a crowd of people near midnight on Monday. Broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk reports police have said they believe this was not an indiscriminate attack and say there was no danger to the wider public, but rather it was related to clan violence, German shorthand for migrant crime families involved in the drugs trade.

A police spokesman said: “Those involved belong to extended families, some of whom have already come to the attention of the police in connection with clan-related crime”. It is understood the attacker and victims were already known to each other.

Germany’s Die Welt states there was a large group of people out in the evening and that an argument developed with the driver of the BMW, which led to shouting and the vehicle being kicked and punched. In apparent response to this, the vehicle was then driven into the crowd, before being backed up and driven in again.

Police officers holding a traffic stop nearby heard the commotion and raced to the scene. Seeing the car driving into pedestrians, officers opened fire to stop the car.

Despite the presence of a large number of police officers at the scene as the attack took place and the deployment of a police helicopter, it is stated the driver and any number of passengers who may have been in the vehicle at the time were able to escape on foot and disappear. Three people who lived at the address where the car was registered have been taken into custody, but police said they are still trying to determine whether they were involved in the altercation in any way or not.

The issue of migrant ‘crime clan’ drug gangs is a longstanding one in Germany, with police expressing concern about the spread and influence of these Mafia-like organisations relying on strong family networks imported from foreign cultures in European cities. Attempts by these gangs to infiltrate the state through entryism into politics and the police is a developing issue.

Despite the well understood nature of the violent drug clans, the phrase itself can elicit controversy in Germany, as some consider having a special label for the partiocular nature of migrant family network-based crime clans racist. NDR’s report cites German criminologist Thomas Müller who dismisses the stereotype, stating: “Just imagin… if you consider all Müllers as potentially criminals and constantly monitor them, it affects the image that the police and society have of everyone with the surname Müller.”