A German man allegedly used his own blood to paint swastikas on buildings and nearly four dozen cars in a sleepy central town outside of Frankfurt, according to police.
Authorities received an alert last Wednesday after a man said a car parked in Hanau was branded with a swastika in a reddish liquid. When authorities arrived on the scene, they found nearly 50 cars were similarly defaced, police spokesman Thomas Leipold said.
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Investigators tested the substance, which revealed it was human blood.
The next day, police used a witness tip to trace the blood back to a 31-year-old Romanian citizen, who they arrested at his home.
“He was still under the strong influence of alcohol and his motive appears to be highly personal and job-related — he just snapped,” Leipold said.
The assilant was injured when he was apprehended and his wounds appeared to be self-inflicted, the police official added.
The suspect was booked in a “psychiatric hospital” and his identity was withheld per Germany’s privacy rules, Leipold said.
Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky was appalled by the attack and noted that the community is still working to put the pieces back together after a domestic terrorist attack in February 2020, in which a gunman specifically killed nine people with immigrant backgrounds at a hookah bar.
“Especially in our city, which was deeply affected by the racist attack on Feb. 19, 2020, such an act causes deep consternation,” he said, adding that the city had filed a criminal complaint, German news agency dpa reported.
“What happened here crosses every boundary of decency and humanity. Swastikas have no place in Hanau. We will not allow such symbols to sow fear or division.”
The display of Nazi emblems, including the swastika, is banned in Germany.
