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Berlin Police Tell Knife Attack Victim to 'Go Home and Fill Out a Form'

© Flickr / Andrew NashPark am Gleisdreieck
Park am Gleisdreieck - Sputnik International
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A frightened Berlin resident who was threatened in a park was left even more scared by the police response, Berlin's B.Z. news website reported.

Police walks at the university clinic in Steglitz, a southwestern district of Berlin, July 26, 2016 after a doctor had been shot at and the gunman had killed himself. - Sputnik International
Shots Fired at Doctor in Berlin, Attacker Commits Suicide
A woman walking her dog in Berlin's Gleisdreieck park earlier this month was threatened by two men, who pulled out a knife and threatened her.

Sabine Staedtler told Berlin's B.Z. news website that at first, the two men harassed her and shouted rude insults. Then, one of them pulled out a knife.

"The blade was as long as my hand, I was really scared," she said.

"I had palpitations, chest pains."

Staedtler says that passers-by did not come to her aid, and that "the attackers were laughing at me."

After the two men disappeared into some nearby bushes, the victim decided to call 110, the police emergency number. However, she was stuck on hold for several minutes until a police officer answered the phone.

"I wanted a police car to come, the men were still around," she explained.


"In an emergency, help was on hold," B.Z. Berlin reported.

"However, the police told me to go home and fill out a form online."

Staedtler eventually got a police reaction the next time she phoned. 

"Two very friendly officers came and took my statements about the men, and about the lack of assistance from the police."

However, Staedtler said that she has not heard from the police since then, and B.Z. suggests the failing could be due to overstretched police resources; in May there was an average of 3,433 calls daily to the 110 emergency number. 

This year in the Gleisdreieck park alone, 94 offenses were committed up to the middle of June, after 167 were recorded for the whole of last year.

According to German police statistics for 2015, a total of 6,330,649 crimes were committed in Germany last year, an increase of 4.1 percent compared to the previous year.

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