Ultralight plane crashes outside German parliament
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-23 09:05

An ultralight airplane crashed close to the German parliament and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's office, killing the pilot but harming no one on the ground, police said. A city official ruled out a terrorist attack.

Police spokesman Hansjoerg Draeger said the pilot died when his ultralight plane plunged onto a broad lawn in front of the Reichstag, which houses the lower house of parliament, in downtown Berlin shortly before 8:30 p.m. (1830GMT) Friday.

No one else was injured when the plane came down and no buildings were damaged.

German police and firemen attend the scene next to the wreckage of a small aircraft following a crash in front of the Reichstag in Berlin late July 22, 2005. A light aircraft crashed onto the lawn in front of the Reichstag building that houses the German lower house of parliament in central Berlin on Friday, police said. It was a single-engined aircraft, the Berlin fire brigade said. According to a Reuters witness, the plane was almost completely burnt out.[Reuters]

The burned-out wreckage lay about 200 meters (650 feet) from the parliament and about 100 meters (330 feet) from Schroeder's office. It was not immediately clear if Schroeder was in his office.

Eckhardt Koerting, Berlin's top law enforcement told reporters: "Nothing, absolutely nothing indicates a terror background."

Police and fire fighters from a station a few hundred meters (yards) away were on the scene within 5 minutes and attempted to resuscitate the pilot, police said.

Details on the identity of the pilot were not immediately available, but Draeger said the ultralight plane had taken off from Straussberg, outside of Berlin.

German air control officials said the plane had not communicated with them on their frequency and suspected the crash was a suicide attempt.

Police tape off the wreckage of a small aircraft following a crash in front of the Reichstag in Berlin late July 22, 2005. [Reuters]

At the time of the crash there was a line of people waiting to get into the Reichstag, whose landmark glass dome is one of the city's main tourist attractions. One of them, Boris Narewski, said he was startled by the crash. "We turned and saw the flames," he said.

Alfred Koser, a 52-year-old architect, said he saw the plane flying low and slow between the Reichstag's dome and an adjoining block of lawmakers' offices.

"I got the feeling he has to do something: climb or land," Koser told The Associated Press. "The plane flew right over me. I thought it was some kind of show."

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