Crime - Substance used in attack in Hellersdorf was sulphuric acid
After a man reportedly threw an unknown substance from his balcony onto two apartments below on a Sunday, the police announced today that it was hydrochloric acid. Two women aged 42 and 41 were injured and taken to the hospital in Berlin-Hellersdorf as a result, according to the police.
The man, who is 36 years old, was reportedly taken into custody initially. After establishing his identity, he was released. He is now responsible for answering to charges of dangerous bodily harm in two cases, it was stated.
According to the latest investigation, the 42-year-old tenant reportedly first noticed damages and an unpleasant smell on her balcony in the fourth floor. When the woman stepped barefoot over a liquid on her balcony, she sustained injuries to her sole of her foot. Since she had previously had frequent disputes with the man living above her and suspected that he might have used an acidic liquid to damage her balcony plants, she called the police.
Police then searched the man's apartment at the order of the prosecutor and secured a bottle of hydrochloric acid as evidence. During the statement taking, another tenant from the third floor of the building reported that her balcony had also been damaged. The woman had rubbed her index finger over the residue of the liquid on the balcony railing, which immediately caused a blister on her finger, it was reported.
- The unknown substance that caused the incident on Sunday was later identified by the police as sulphuric acid.
- The neighborhood dispute between the 42-year-old woman and the man living above her might have motivated him to use sulphuric acid, as she suspected.
- The police are now investigating if there are any other victims in the building who might have been affected by the sulphuric acid, considering another tenant reported a blister on her finger.
- The 42-year-old woman and the 41-year-old woman who were injured by the sulphuric acid on their balconies live in the Berlin-Hellersdorf neighborhood, where the incident took place.
