A bus headed for Switzerland crashes off a German highway, killing 4 people

BERLIN (AP) — Four people were killed Wednesday when a bus headed from Berlin to Switzerland drove off a highway in eastern Germany and ended up on its side, police said.

The accident happened on the A9 highway near Leipzig at about 9:45 a.m, less than two hours after the bus left Berlin. It was en route to Zurich and operated by Flixbus, the dominant long-distance bus operator in Germany.

Police initially said that at least five people were killed, but later revised the figure to four. They said a person initially reported to them as dead was in a life-threatening condition.

Six people were seriously injured and 29 lightly injured, they said. Many people were taken to nearby hospitals.

There were 54 people on board the bus at the time of the crash, including two drivers — a 62-year-old from the Czech Republic and a 53-year-old from Slovakia.

The cause of the accident wasn't immediately clear. Police said there was no indication that any other vehicle was involved, and the driver wasn't among those killed.

Police officers stand by a tent at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

Police said late Wednesday they couldn't yet give information on the ages and nationalities of the victims, and that the identification of the dead hadn't yet been completed.

They said they have opened an investigation on suspicion of negligent manslaughter.

The A9 is a major north-south route that links Berlin with Munich. The accident happened on a straight stretch of the road just north of a highway interchange at Schkeuditz, next to the Leipzig/Halle airport.

The highway was fully reopened Wednesday evening, nearly 12 hours after the crash.

The luggage of the passengers involved in the accident are still on the bus at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

A view of the bus at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

A view of the bus at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

Police officers stand in front of the bus at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

A view of the bus at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

Emergency vehicles and rescue helicopters are seen at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27, 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

Emergency vehicles and a rescue helicopter work at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday, March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

A rescue helicopter from the German Air Rescue Service (DRF) is in action over the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday, March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

A coach lies overturned on its side at the scene of an accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

A coach lies overturned on its side at the scene of an accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

Emergency vehicles and rescue helicopters are seen at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27, 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

Emergency vehicles and rescue helicopters are at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

BERLIN (AP) — A prominent Berlin politician was violently assaulted and suffered injuries to her head and neck, police said Wednesday, in the latest attack on elected officials that raises concern over rising political violence in Germany.

Frankziska Giffey, the city's top economic official, a former mayor and an ex-federal minister, was attacked at an event in a Berlin library on Tuesday by a man who approached her from behind and hit her with a bag containing a hard device, police said.

Giffey was taken to a hospital and treated for head and neck pain, police said, adding they were searching for the perpetrator.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner strongly condemned the attack.

"Anyone who attacks politicians is attacking our democracy,” said Wegner, according to German news agency dpa. “We will not tolerate this. We will oppose all forms of violence, hatred and agitation and protect our democracy.”

Giffey wrote on Instagram that "we live in a free and democratic country in which everyone is free to express their opinion ... and yet there is a clear limit. And that is violence against people who hold a different opinion, for whatever reason, in whatever form.”

“They are a transgression of boundaries that we as a society must resolutely oppose,” she said.

Last week, a candidate from the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was beaten up in the eastern city of Dresden while campaigning for next month's election for the European Parliament and had to undergo surgery.

Police detained four suspects, aged between 17 and 18, and said that the same group had apparently attacked a Greens party worker minutes before they attacked Matthias Ecke. At least one of the teens is said to be linked to far-right groups, security officials said.

Also on Tuesday, a 47-year-old Green Party politician was attacked by two people while putting up election posters in Dresden, dpa reported.

The incidents have raised political tensions in Germany.

Both government and opposition parties say their members and supporters have faced a wave of physical and verbal attacks in recent months, and have called on police to step up protection for politicians and election rallies.

Germany's federal interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said after a meeting of the country's 16 state interior ministers that possible measures included tightening Germany’s criminal law in order to "punish anti-democratic acts more severely,”

Many of the incidents have taken place in the former communist east of the country, where Scholz’s government is deeply unpopular. The Interior Ministry in the state of Saxony said it had registered 112 election-related crimes so far this year, including 30 against elected officials or representatives.

Mainstream parties have accused the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, of links to violent neo-Nazi groups and of fomenting an intimidating political climate. One of its leaders, Bjoern Hoecke, is currently on trial for using a banned Nazi slogan.

Alternative for Germany, which campaigns against immigration and European integration, is expected to make gains in the European polls as well as in elections in Saxony and two other eastern German states in the fall.

FILE - Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey attends a commemoration for homosexual victims of the Holocaust, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)