Zurich Street Parade: German man confesses to making fake bomb
The techno music festival drew hundreds of thousands of people to Zurich.
Keystone
A 31-year-old German confessed to making the fake bomb that was found in a backpack at the Zurich Street Parade.
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A suspicious orange backpack was found at Utoquai on Saturday evening during the techno music festival that attracted around 850,000 visitors in the Swiss city.
The man was arrested on Sunday evening at his home in the canton of Aargau. During an interrogation, the German admitted to having manufactured the imitation bomb and dropped it on a street, the Zurich Public Prosecutor’s Office told Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA. A request for preventive detention has been filed.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into threats to the population. For such an offence, the man faces up to three years in prison.
No explosives and detonators
The suspicious backpack was discovered on Saturday around 8pm during the Street Parade. The area was cordoned off for security reasons and the bag whisked away for examination. Investigators found inside the cables, a mobile phone, metal parts and a PET bottle filled with a fire accelerant. There was no explosive and no igniter.
The man arrested was already known to the police. According to the first findings of the investigation, the German has no connection with extremist religious or political movements.
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