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Police officer shot at during German raids linked to far-right group
Investigators conduct searches targeting members of conspiratorial Reich Citizens movement, a group implicated in alleged Bundestag coup plot foiled in December
BERLIN — German investigators carried out raids related to a far-right movement on Wednesday, in which a police officer was shot at during one of the searches and reportedly sustained light injuries.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann tweeted that federal prosecutors ordered searches of 20 properties and that the move was related to the Reich Citizens movement, a loose grouping whose supporters deny the legitimacy of the present-day German Constitution and government. They claim instead that the German empire, or Reich, of 1871 still exists.
The incident in which a police offer was shot at “shows how dangerous the deployments are,” Buschmann said. He added that weapons authorities “are obliged to disarm ‘Reich Citizens.'”
He didn’t give further details on the purpose or result of the raids.
Federal prosecutors confirmed that a shot was fired during a search in the southwestern town of Reutlingen and that a person was arrested, German news agency dpa reported. The agency also said a member of police special forces was slightly wounded.
In December, German authorities said they had uncovered an alleged coup plot that resulted in the detention of more than 20 people linked to the Reich Citizens movement.
