BERLIN: Attackers hurled several incendiary bottles at a building housing the offices of Germany’s national disease control agency early on Sunday, police in Berlin said.
A security guard at the Robert Koch Institute extinguished the flames but the attackers were able to escape. A window was broken, police said.
Because a “political motivation” is suspected, the attempted arson case has been handed over to state criminal investigators, police said. Several people are believed to have been involved in the attack.
The Robert Koch Institute is Germany’s main public health institute. It keeps track of coronavirus cases in the country and helps advise the government on the strategy to contain the spread.
According to the police, the office that was attacked is located in the southern district of Tempelhof-Schoeneberg, not the main building in the north-west of the German capital.
While most Germans approve of the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, there have been large rallies against the restrictions imposed on businesses and public life, sometimes bringing tens of thousands of people into the streets.
Several hundred people gathered on Berlin’s central Alexanderplatz square on Sunday to protest the measures as police reminded participants to wear face masks and keep 1.5 metres apart.
Another larger demonstration was planned in the afternoon in Berlin’s Tiergarten park.
In August, an attempt by extremists to storm the German parliament building sent shock waves through the political establishment, with ministers decrying what they saw as attacks on democracy.
The infection rate still remains lower in Germany than many other European countries, but alarm is growing over a steep rise in cases that began with the onset of cooler weather. That has led to a tightening of restrictions in some parts of Germany, including Berlin.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) confirmed on Sunday 11,176 new cases over the past 24 hours. The number is often lower on weekends as fewer tests are carried out.
A total of 429,181 people in Germany have been infected with the virus since the beginning of the pandemic. On Sunday, the death toll rose by 29 to a new total of 10,032.
The reproduction value, which measures how fast the virus is spreading, stood on Saturday at 1.36 across Germany, the RKI said. — dpa
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