Two US airmen shot in Frankfurt airport
Almaty. March 3. Kazakhstan Today - Two U.S. airmen were killed and two were wounded at Frankfurt airport, Kazakhstan Today reports.
Two US Air Force servicemen have died after a gunman opened fire on a bus carrying American military personnel at Frankfurt Airport, police say, BBC News reported.
Two servicemen were also wounded. One of the dead is said to have been the driver. All four were based at RAF Lakenheath in eastern England.
A 21-year-old man from Kosovo was arrested at Terminal 2 close to where the attack took place.
The men had just flown in from Britain and were about to travel to the US military base at Ramstein, a hub for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Two airmen have been killed and two were wounded during a shooting incident today at Frankfurt International Airport," the US Air Forces in Europe said in a statement.
"The names of the deceased are being withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin. German authorities have the shooter in custody. The incident is currently under investigation," the statement added.
The bus driver and a passenger were killed, while one airman suffered minor injuries and the second was in a life-threatening condition, according to Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt.
Mr Fuellhardt said the attacker and US military personnel apparently had an altercation in front of the bus just before the man started shooting. The attacker briefly entered the bus, he added.
The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says that after the shooting, which took place in the middle of the afternoon, the suspected gunman fled into the terminal building, where he was arrested by German police.
Security has been high in German airports in recent months, following what the authorities said was information that a terror attack was planned, but the official threat level was lowered a month ago.
Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi said in an interview that German police had identified the suspect as Arif Uka, a Kosovan citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica.
Family members in Kosovo described the suspect as a devout Muslim, who was born and raised in Germany and worked at the airport, The Huffington Post informed.
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