Weapons found in Berlin building where former German terrorist lived

DPA
·2 min read
A member of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service stands by an emergency vehicle in front of the home of former RAF terrorist Daniela Klette, which was evacuated due to a possible threat. The former terrorist of the Red Army Faction (RAF), Daniela Klette, was captured in Berlin-Kreuzberg on Monday. Paul Zinken/dpa
A member of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service stands by an emergency vehicle in front of the home of former RAF terrorist Daniela Klette, which was evacuated due to a possible threat. The former terrorist of the Red Army Faction (RAF), Daniela Klette, was captured in Berlin-Kreuzberg on Monday. Paul Zinken/dpa

Weapons have been found in the block of flats in Berlin where Daniela Klette, the former far-left terrorist from the Red Army Faction (RAF) lived, police said on Wednesday.

Police discovered weapons in the seven-storey building, a spokeswoman for the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office confirmed on Wednesday evening.

The Berlin daily Tagesspiegel had previously reported on firearms being found.

In the afternoon, the police cleared the building because of possible danger. All residents had to leave their apartments.

Later, a police officer from the explosive ordnance disposal service carried an object out of the house. "It looks like a mortar shell, but it's not, but it's very close," a police officer said.

Berlin police confirmed that a grenade was found. "Our forensic scientists have so far taken a grenade out of the building on Sebastianstrasse in #Kreuzberg and rendered it harmless at another location," the police said on the X platform, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday evening. “Other items are currently being examined.”

Klette, 65, was arrested in the flat on Monday evening, where she was living under a false identity, police said. She is now in custody.

Berlin police continued to search Klette's apartment on Wednesday.

Shortly after Klette's arrest, another person in the "wanted age segment" was arrested in Berlin, police said.

However the second detained person is not one of the two other wanted RAF members Burkhard Garweg or Ernst-Volker Staub.

The man was released from police custody, police in the northern city of Hanover said on Wednesday morning. The decades-long search for the two other fugitives is still ongoing.

"There is no doubt that it is not one of the two fugitives," authorities said.

Authorities accuse Klette and her fellow members Garweg and Staub of attempted murder and a series of armed robberies between 1999 and 2016.

Klette did not provide any information about the allegations to the responsible investigating judge at the Verden district court, as a spokeswoman for the Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice said.

The RAF was founded in 1968 by far-left extremists Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof, with members active well into the 1990s. It was also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang.

The group justified its attacks, in which more than 30 people were killed, with the aim of destroying the capitalist social order.