Taking hostages in Cologne: 14-year-old victim talks about crime

Stand: 12:52 | Reading time: 3 minutes

WIf all goes well, Lika could celebrate her 15th birthday at home next weekend. However, the pupil is still in the children's hospital of Cologne. Six weeks of clinic, eight surgeries and two skin transplants are behind her. When taking hostages at Cologne Central Station in mid-October, she was severely burned in her legs. Now she could still walk three meters, she told ARD morning magazine.

On October 15, Lika drove for the first time by car with her friend Jasmin in the city. Both men wanted to take pictures for pictures of the cathedral and eat at the McDonald's restaurant. There, the arson occurs. An armed man lights a Molotov badtail in the train station's fast-food restaurant. He then immisces in a pharmacy and takes a woman hostage. A special task force badaulted the company. Police shot and killed a 55-year-old Syrian.

Lika, who comes from the city of Hennef in the south-east of Cologne, describes the events that pitted the "Kölner Stadtanzeiger" against them: in McDonald's, you noticed it because he had a firearm in front of him and a liquid on the After pouring the floor – later, it becomes clear: it's gasoline. "I said to my friend Jasmin: Let's go, I'm scared." The next moment, the flames were fired.

"She was scared to death"

She was out on the square at the back exit of the main train station. "I saw that my right foot was on fire, my ankles were all black, but I thought it was dirt." She did not feel pain until later.

An eyewitness recounted just after the arson in an interview with ARD, while she saw Lika and her friend escape from McDonald's: "This one has the burnt foot (…) who was scared to death. "

"We ran and ran, we just wanted to go home," Lika said during the interview. A pbader-by could stop him and take off his shoe and his hot straight socks. An old man is busy with her. They did not know who the two badistants were, even though they wanted to thank them.

"What do you mean to this mother or this girl?"

Lika and her family are also grateful to the many people who made donations: more than 200,000 euros were collected, including at a charity concert organized by a youth choir from Cologne to the main train station, there a few days.

The Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hebert Reul, was also in the ranks of the public, as shown in the television report of the ARD. Visibly touched, he continues to wipe his eyes with a handkerchief. "I think we can never do enough. (…) Basically, you can not do what you have to do," says the politician of the CDU. "What do you mean to this mother or this girl?"

Lika's mother is particularly concerned about the issue of the author's motive: "Personally, I just want to look at him (…) and, of course, when he can talk, ask him why he is there. did, "she said in an interview. ARD television. The man is not yet able to hear and lie after the police shot in coma. According to reports by NDR, WDR and "Süddeutsche Zeitung", investigators have found no evidence of an Islamist motive, but evidence of mental problems in the 55-year-olds.

Even if the question of "why" remains unanswered, at least Lika's doctors are confident. Although the treatment of scars may take years, their mobility is not limited by this. Lika will soon be able to walk normally and jump.