The Dresden public prosecutor’s office and the Dresden police headquarters arrested a 50-year-old man on suspicion of arson in two tram lines on Wednesday evening. The suspect, who has a criminal record, is to be brought before the investigating judge today.
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The public prosecutor has asked the judge to issue an arrest warrant. Since the crime scenes were only a few kilometers apart, the police checked for a connection after the second fire.
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Burned one seat each in line 4
The accused is accused of having ignited a rag soaked in a flammable liquid with an open flame on July 12, 2022 at around 00:45 a.m. on Meißner Straße in Radebeul and throwing it at a seat on tram line 4 of the Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe. Then he fled. As intended by the accused, the seat caught fire. The toxic fumes spread in the tram and soot fell.
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A day later, at around 2:00 a.m. on Hirtenweg in Coswig, the suspect is said to have set fire to a seat on tram line 4 again with an open flame. The suspect then fled again. Here, too, the toxic smoke gases spread in the train.
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Tram out of service for several weeks
Both trams will probably not be able to be used for several weeks due to the necessary repairs. The failure hits the transport companies particularly hard because there are already vehicle bottlenecks to be dealt with due to a lack of spare parts.
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