Railway station and vocational college were closed All-clear after suspicious object found in Siegburg
Siegburg · The railway station was evacuated on Wednesday afternoon after a suspicious object was found on Hochstraße in the area of the Berufskolleg. Train services were suspended. Residential and business premises were also evacuated.
A suspicious object was found under a vehicle in Siegburg on Wednesday afternoon. According to police, the vehicle was in the area of the Berufskolleg on Hochstraße. A police spokesperson said the object was a backpack that a suspect was said to have thrown away. After the object could be examined by disarmers of the State Criminal Police Office, the police gave the all-clear in the afternoon. The backpack posed no danger.
At around 12.45 p.m., the police had received information about a suspect who had pushed a rucksack under a parked car and left in the direction of the railway station. Initial investigations that the man had boarded a train were not confirmed. The station was subsequently evacuated and train services were suspended. There were numerous cancellations and delays on the line.
As the police announced in the afternoon, the area around the car park was initially evacuated. Contrary to the initial announcement, residential and business premises were not evacuated within a radius of 400 metres. According to the defusing team, this was not necessary. The evacuation therefore only affected the railway station and the immediate danger zone. However, traffic was blocked within a radius of 400 metres.
The students of the vocational college were escorted out of the school beforehand. After the all-clear was given by the police, all barriers were lifted.
Police checked a 52-year-old man who matched the description there. "However, he could be released again as unsuspicious," the police announced in the evening.
At the Alexander-von-Humboldt-Realschule, which is about two kilometres away from the vocational college, there had been an amok alarm shortly before. Witnesses had reported seeing a suspicious person with a weapon.
Original text: ga
Translation: Mareike Graepel
