Pensioner arrested in Germany for sending letter bombs to Lidl

The locked main entrance of the Lidl headquarters are pictured in Neckarsulm, Germany

Credit: Christoph Schmidt

German authorities have arrested a 66-year-old man on suspicion of sending letter bombs to supermarket giant Lidl and two other food companies in the south of the country.

The pensioner was arrested at his home in the city of Ulm on Friday evening and has so far not commented on the series of attacks.

"Investigators currently believe that it is unlikely that the suspect sent other letter bombs," the prosecutors in the city of Heidelberg said.

A letter bomb that was sent with the package company DHL to Lidl’s headquarters in Neckarsulm, detonated upon being opened on Wednesday, leading to three employees requiring medical treatment.

All three were released from hospital on Friday afternoon. Lidl released a statement saying that employees at their headquarters were being provided with psychological support.

A day earlier, on Tuesday, another bomb arrived at the offices of the Wild drinks company, best known for the Capri-Sun brand, in the nearby town of Eppelheim.

No injuries were reported in that incident. Fearing the start of a series of attacks, the states of Bavarian and Baden-Württemberg set up an emergency investigation involving 100 detectives.

Investigators were then able to intercept a third bomb which had been addressed to the baby food producer Hipp, based in Bavaria. All of the packages had fake sender addresses.

But police were able to trace the actual post office from which the package was sent. An investigation into the type of explosive device eventually led them to the suspect, a police statement confirmed.

The pensioner was not previously known to authorities, while there is still no clarity as to what his motive might have been. None of the companies are believed to have been subjected to blackmail attempts in the lead up to the attacks.

Investigators running the case said that they are currently analysing evidence seized at the suspect’s house, as they try to understand why the man may have targeted the food and beverages companies.