A few weeks ago over 80,000 people were evacuated from day one of Germany’s Rock AM Ring festival due to a terror alert. At that time, police had required concrete evidence before giving the green light to make the decision on cutting the event short. Many wondered if it would be cancelled in its entirety, however, it resumed the following day. Now that time has passed, a new report has been revealed stating the evacuation was due to misspelling names of two construction workers. These two workers allegedly were referenced to the Islamic scene and due to not finding them on the list, it triggered the terror alert.
The German news source, allgemeine-zeitung.de shared the following explanation (transcribed via google):
“Mainz (dpa) – Errors in the names of two construction workers and alleged references to the Islamic scene triggered the terror alarm at the music festival “Rock am Ring”. Johannes Kunz, President of the Rhineland-Palatinate Regional Criminal Court, told the Mainz newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung (Wednesday): “The names of the suspects were spelled wrong, but they had a phonetic (phonetic) resemblance to the real spellings.”
The two construction aid workers from Syria had entered a police check before “Rock am Ring” began.The names of their passports did not match their names on the organizer’s list. On Wednesday, the Regional Criminal Police said: “It was only during the review of the real personalities that an islamist relationship was established, which led to the evacuation of the festival site.” This was the real trigger for the interruption of the musical spectacle at the beginning of June in the Eifel until the next day been. The police found nothing suspicious about the Nürburgring circuit. The investigations against both construction workers continue.
At the same time, the Interior Ministers’ Conference (IMK) decided to examine the filing of helpers at major events. “This procedure should be scrutinized by experts from the interior courts in the federal and state governments,” said Roger Lewentz (SPD), Minister of the Interior of Rhineland-Palatinate, to the conclusion of the IMK on Wednesday in Dresden. “The goal must be that every access authorization is to be provided with a photograph for future caregivers for the event grounds, so that a clear identification of the persons is possible,” he said.”
The week after the Manchester bombing at an Ariana Grande concert, it’s a good thing that they erred on the side of caution, not to mention that everyone evacuated in an orderly fashion.
