Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

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Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Zaune »

BBC News
Three explosions have hit a bus carrying the Borussia Dortmund football team to their home Champions League quarter-final match against Monaco.

Spain international Marc Bartra was taken to hospital with an injury to his hand, the club said.

The club tweeted (in German) that the other players were safe and there was no danger in or around the stadium.

The first-leg match was postponed and will now be played on Wednesday at 18:45 local time (16:45 GMT).

Pictures from the scene showed the bus's windows broken and tyres burst in the blasts.

Police said that "three explosive charges detonated" at Hoechsten outside the city at about 19:00 local time.

A statement on the North Rhine-Westphalia Dortmund police Twitter site (in German) said that the first indications were that this was an "attack with serious explosives".

Fans at the 80,000-capacity Signal Iduna Park were told to stay there until it was safe to leave. The stadium has now been evacuated, with police thanking the fans for their co-operation.

Borussia Dortmund said in a statement: "Shortly after the departure of the Borussia Dortmund team bus from the hotel to the stadium there was an incident. The bus has been damaged in two places."

The Dortmund Twitter page confirmed that Bartra, a 26-year-old defender, was the player hurt, and wished him a speedy recovery.

Spain's La Marca later said Bartra had been discharged and was back at home.

Dortmund's CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said: "There has been an attack with explosives on the team bus.

"The whole team is in a state of shock, you can't get pictures like that out of your head."

He added: "I hope the team will be in a position to be able to compete tomorrow on the pitch. In a crisis situation like this, Borussia pulls together."

One of the Dortmund players, Mathias Ginter, was involved in the Germany-France match that was targeted in the terror attacks in Paris on 13 November, 2015. Another present in Paris, Andre Schurrle, was injured for the Monaco match.

FC Barcelona, Bartra's former club, tweeted: "All of our support to @MarcBartra, @BVB and their fans."

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also tweeted his support, wishing Bartra a quick recovery.

Dortmund are currently fourth in the German Bundesliga table.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by The Romulan Republic »

I admit that when I saw this, I made the same mistake that so many others do, that's been drilled into us by the media and popular culture: Basically "Oh God, here we go again, another jihadi attack." Which just goes to show how thoroughly that kind of reflexive response has permeated our culture, since I certainly intellectually know better.

That said, if it was a terrorist attack, it was thankfully a very inept one if it only caused one injury.

The thought that it could be just disgruntled asshole sports fans is, simultaneously, both oddly refreshing and absolutely horrifying (that people would engage in violence over a fucking game).
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Zaune »

Well, we're got to channel our militant nationalism and bitter historical grudges into something if we're not allowed to wage war on each other, I guess.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Darth Tanner »

The Romulan Republic wrote:I admit that when I saw this, I made the same mistake that so many others do, that's been drilled into us by the media and popular culture: Basically "Oh God, here we go again, another jihadi attack." Which just goes to show how thoroughly that kind of reflexive response has permeated our culture, since I certainly intellectually know better.
You were potentially not mistaken, the police are treating it as an Islamic terrorist attack, although obbiously its still quite early. These low level incompetent attacks seem to be a new recurring theme.

Guardian
German authorities investigating explosions beside a bus carrying the Borussia Dortmund football team say they have detained a suspect with what prosecutors described as links to “the Islamist spectrum”.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by The Romulan Republic »

It wouldn't greatly surprise me either way. My point was not that it was definitely something else, just that its become habitual in our society to assume that's what any explosion is, regardless of weather its correct.

First time I've heard the phrase "Islamic spectrum", though.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Dartzap »

The Romulan Republic wrote:
First time I've heard the phrase "Islamic spectrum", though.
Didn't they have a few skirmishes with the Buddhist Mysterons?

I certainly wouldn't put it past certain groups of fanatics (football or otherwise) trying to nobble an opposing team. There's a reason why the local derby here has sufficient riot police and cavalry in attendance to invade a small island nation.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Zaune »

Dartzap wrote:Didn't they have a few skirmishes with the Buddhist Mysterons?
That gave me the best laugh I've had all week.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Crazedwraith »

So three bombs and the news described them as being effective to 100m. It just seems a miracle that more people weren't hurt.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Sea Skimmer »

Effective against what, boredom? Sure maybe by health and safety standards that also tell you handling copper plated bullets without gloves could cause cancer these bombs were dangerous at that distance, but the bus shows no significant fragmentation damage and the blast..couldn't full break automotive side windows. Meanwhile a WW2 era 155mm shell has a 30m reliable kill radius. I'm pretty sure a bus hit by three of those would be on fire and in pieces. I don't think this was even a high explosive, someone made firecrackers with impact fuses was my first thought back when it happened.

Reasons exist why what might have been fairly large devices might fail like this, but terrorists are so stupid these days I'm actually concerned about talking about them least they become less stupid by fluke. Nice really showed reality, as me, Shep and many others had long forecast, that carefully planned and executed but SIMPLE plans are very dangerous. But the moment you go and want to make a bomb though you've moved from simple to complex and hard to reherse/test
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Crazedwraith »

The latest thinking is not Islamist but trying to make a quick buck off the stock price...
The BBC wrote: Police in Germany have charged a man suspected of being behind an attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus.

Rather than having links to radical Islamism, he was a market trader hoping to make money if the price of shares in the team fell, prosecutors say.

The 28-year-old, identified only as Sergej W, was staying in the team's hotel in a room overlooking the street where the explosion took place.

Two people needed medical help after three bombs exploded near the bus.

Spanish footballer Marc Bartra underwent wrist surgery and a police officer was treated for shock.


Following the attack on 11 April, Borussia Dortmund's Champions League match against Monaco was rescheduled a day later, which led Dortmund fans to open their doors to stranded away supporters.

Police were originally treating the blast as a terrorist attack after letters were found near the site of the attack indicating links to so-called Islamic State (IS). They arrested a 25-year-old Iraqi "with Islamist links" the day afterwards.

However, the following week, investigators cast "significant doubt" on jihadist motivations being behind it.

They said letters found at the scene may have been an attempt to trick people into thinking there was an Islamist motive.

In a statement on Friday (in German), the German federal prosecutor's office said the 28-year-old, who has German and Russian nationality, had been charged with attempted murder. He was arrested early on Friday near Tübingen in Baden-Wuerttemberg in south-west Germany.

The suspect had allegedly bought options to short-sell 15,000 shares of stock - reportedly priced at €78,000 (£65,000; $83,600) - in Borussia Dortmund. He would have profited from falling share prices after the attack.

He was staying at the team's L'Arrivée hotel in Dortmund on the day of the attack and had moved to a room on the top floor, overlooking the street where it took place, prosecutors say.

The suspect placed the bet on 11 April using an IP address traced to the hotel, after taking out a loan for the money.

Investigators believe three explosive devices packed with metal pins were hidden in a hedge and set off as the bus passed.

The bus was damaged about six miles from the Westfalenstadion - officially called Signal Iduna Park - in Dortmund about 90 minutes before kick-off.

Pictures from the scene showed the bus's windows broken and tyres burst in the blasts.

Fans at the 80,000-capacity Signal Iduna Park were told to stay there until it was safe to leave but were later evacuated safely.

Borussia Dortmund's stock did drop from €5.738 to a low of €5.421 after the attack. Having recovered slightly it slid again after the team was eliminated from the Champions League.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Dartzap »

So a 'better class' of football hooligan then?
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Sea Skimmer »

Na, schemes like this used to be really common in the 60s-80s period when the west was extra awash in small bombings and terrorist this or that, it only tapered off when police began to get much better at forensics, leading to results like this where the person behind it is caught quickly. All kinds of business scams and insurance fraud were going on that, and before it was bombs it was (and sometimes still is) arson. Nothing new at all unfortunately, just dumb people and get rich quick scamming.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Lord Revan »

It does show the banality of true evil, it's not some cartoony bad guy doing evil things for the sake of it, but some moron thinking only about himself(or herself) and not caring who gets hurt in the process. I'm just glad that only 2 people got hurt, though even that is 2 too many, but alas the world isn't a perfect and sometimes we must accept less then perfect outcomes.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by LaCroix »

It takes a certain kind of person to do such a thing. Literally attempting mass murder to make a few bucks. I really can't wait to see his psych evaluation, he most likely will get locked up in a mental asylum for life.

Can we now claim that all people investing at the stock market are potential terrorists, by association, and seize their assets so they can't use them to fund terrorism with it? Pleeze? :D
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Lord Revan »

LaCroix wrote:It takes a certain kind of person to do such a thing. Literally attempting mass murder to make a few bucks. I really can't wait to see his psych evaluation, he most likely will get locked up in a mental asylum for life.
Obviously, but my point was that there was no grand plan to commit evil for it's own sake, just a single man only thinking about his own gains without thinking or caring about who gets hurt in the process.
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Re: Borussia Dortmund football team bus hit by explosions

Post by Dartzap »

Arnt German teams mostly fan owned anyway? I wouldn't have thought there would be much of a slump to profit from.
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