Series of Explosions: Explosive Devices Detonated Outside Café and Shisha Bar in Frankfurt

In Frankfurt am Main, there were further explosions overnight. A café and a shisha bar were damaged. Police arrested one person. Several explosive devices had already gone off in the preceding days.

At around 4:20 a.m. on Thursday morning, police reported two explosions in Frankfurt. According to initial findings, explosive devices detonated outside an acai café on Berger Straße in the Nordend district, between Herderstraße and Baumweg, as well as outside a shisha bar on the Zeil near the local civic centre. Both buildings were severely damaged and several windows were shattered.

"It Was Like Being at War"

The detonation at the "Rio" café was so powerful that a soup bar directly opposite, an adjacent Sparkasse bank branch and at least one parked car on Berger Straße were also damaged. Numerous people were jolted from their sleep by the sound of the blast.

"The bang was extremely loud. It was like being at war," said one local resident. "I've never heard anything like it. You felt it through your entire body," she added. She noted that she does not even live directly next to the scene, but around the corner on a side street.

A second resident said that immediately after the explosion, she and her partner had seen a man in a hoodie hiding in the hedgerow of a courtyard. Her partner called the police, who quickly apprehended the man.

Arrest at Merianplatz

Shortly after the incident, a person was indeed arrested near the neighbouring Merianplatz, as police confirmed to hessenschau. Officers were initially unwilling to comment on whether this individual is connected to the explosion.

The second explosive device detonated immediately after the first incident, just a few hundred metres away, outside the "Truth" shisha bar in the eastern section of the Zeil in the city centre. Images show the entrance area was completely destroyed. Forensic officers were also deployed at this scene. No one was injured in either incident.

Explosion at the "Truth" Café in Frankfurt

Series of Explosions in Rapid Succession

There had already been several explosions in Frankfurt and Offenbach in the preceding days. In the early hours of Monday morning, a detonation occurred at a residential building in Frankfurt-Bockenheim.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, blasts also occurred in Frankfurt's Sachsenhausen district and in Offenbach. A bar, a café and a kiosk were damaged. Following the explosion in Sachsenhausen, a 15-year-old suspect was arrested and remanded in custody.

"Violence as a Service"

There have been repeated explosions across the Rhine-Main region in recent weeks and months. Police attribute several of the incidents to organised crime and the phenomenon known as "Violence as a Service," in which young people and young adults are deliberately recruited to carry out the attacks.

In March of this year, a 20-year-old Dutch national was arrested on suspicion of involvement in several of the explosions.