2018 Cologne attack

On Monday, 15 October 2018 at 12:30 German time, the Syrian refugee Mohammed Abo R. entered a McDonald's fast food restaurant at the Cologne Central Station with a bag and a suitcase.

In the restaurant, he sat down at a table, drew a pistol, and spilled a flammable liquid on the floor.

Shortly thereafter, he took a Molotov cocktail from his suitcase, ignited it and set the floor of the restaurant on fire.

[3] Surprised by the triggered fire sprinkler system, Mohammed had meanwhile fled the fast food restaurant and, armed with his gun, stormed into an adjacent pharmacy, where he took an employee hostage.

[6] On the phone, the perpetrator stated his demands: Free passage to Syria, the release of a Tunisian woman, and the return of his suitcase and bag from the McDonald's.

The perpetrator in the meanwhile, had poured gasoline over his hostage, put a Molotov cocktail in her hand, and a lighter in her mouth.

At 14:55 German time, a SEK team detonated two stun grenades, stormed the pharmacy, and shot the perpetrator, who was still armed with his pistol.

Mohammed was dragged by the SEK Members to the square in front of the pharmacy, where CPR was applied and his wounds were treated by police medics.

Further Molotov cocktails, containers with a flammable liquid and several IEDs were found in the bags.

[22][23] The Cologne prosecutor's office charged Mohammed Abo R. with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated battery and hostage-taking.

[24] On 16 October 2018, the Public Prosecutor General took over investigations because there were "sufficient indications for a radical Islamist background.

He entered Europe during the peak of the European migrant crisis and was first intercepted by the authorities of the Czech Republic in early 2015.

[12] In a press conference on Wednesday, the police announced that the perpetrator was no longer in a life threatening condition, but was in a coma.

[34] Due to the gunshot wounds Mohammed is paralyzed on one side and must be artificially fed, fragments of the bullet are still stuck in his skull.