German police launch manhunt for DHL bomb blackmailer

BERLIN, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- German police launched a regional manhunt on Monday after an unknown suspect sent explosives by post last Friday to a Potsdam pharmacy near a Christmas market in an attempt to blackmail the parcel delivery service DHL.

Spokesperson of the Brandenburg Police Office Torsten Herbst said on public broadcaster ZDF that his forces were looking for a perpetrator active in the region around Potsdam where the suspicious package was delivered.

The recipients became aware of the potentially lethal danger posed by the device due to the discovery of wires and paint marks. Police were subsequently able to defuse the bomb. German civilians have since been warned by Brandenburg's governor Karl-Heinz Schroeter (SPD) not to open suspicious mail and to contact authorities.

The author of a letter addressed to the affected Potsdam pharmacy threatened to send further mail bombs unless DHL gives in to their demands for a payment of millions of euros. Security forces currently assume that an individual perpetrator is responsible for the blackmailing attempt, but haven't ruled out the possibly that a larger group could be behind the attack.

Meanwhile, Thuringia governor Bodo Ramelow told press that a second DHL package which may have contained a live grenade was confiscated at the Thuringian State Chancellery in Erfurt on Monday.

Nevertheless, Ramelow described reports which explicitly linked the separate incidents as "pure speculation" at this point.

Police confirmed on Monday that they had already received two dozen tips from the public about the identity of the mail bomber without yet having found a promising lead. A special investigatory commission of around 50 officers has been formed in an urgent bid to solve the case.

German authorities believe that the same perpetrator also sent an explosive device via mail in November which caught fire when it was opened by an online mail order company in Frankfurt. Enditem