German teenager charged with planning to bomb a school

News2022.10.12. 09:13
Police officers carry objects, including several stabbing weapons and spears, from the suspect’s home in Essen, Germany, Thursday, May 12, 2022. Police in the western German city of Essen seized weapons from the apartment of a 16-year-old student allegedly plotting an attack on a local school. Local police said Thursday that officers searched the suspect’s apartment overnight and found spears and other sharp weapons. (David Young/dpa via AP)

A 17-year-old boy was arrested in May for allegedly planning a school bomb attack and has now been charged.

German prosecutors said they had charged a 17-year-old boy with allegedly planning a school bomb attack that was only narrowly avoided when he was arrested the day before, reports the Times of Malta.

On October 11, German prosecutors said they had charged the 17-year-old Jeremy R., who allegedly planned a school bomb attack on May 13, which was only narrowly avoided when he was arrested a day before.

According to the prosecutor, the attack was a „right-wing extremist motivated attack” on a school the suspect attended in the city of Essen. He planned to use explosives and other weapons in the massacre, where „teachers and a larger number of pupils were to be killed.”

At the time of his arrest, the suspect had allegedly acquired the necessary materials to assemble pipe bombs and obtained information on the internet about how to build them. The prosecutors said he had also assembled weapons, including knives, brass knuckles, machetes, crossbows and arrows, as well as firearms.

On May 12, the Essen police stormed the teen’s room, uncovering antisemitic and anti-Muslim materials as well as his writings about suffering from serious psychiatric problems.

Germany has one of the strictest gun laws in Europe, so gun attacks are relatively rare. However, there has been a growing number of hate crimes in the country.