Crime: German Town Shaken By Ice-cream Shop Killings

A small German town was yesterday reeling from an attack at a popular Italian ice- cream parlor in which three people were shot dead and one was seriously injured.

Four men reportedly stormed the De Rocco ice-cream parlor in Rüsselsheim south-west of Frankfurt on Tuesday evening and shot three people dead before fleeing down a street.

Two Turkish citizens, aged 49 and 28, were arrested yesterday following a manhunt involving more than 200 police with helicopters and sniffer dogs. Police were continuing their search.

One of the victims was a 55-year-old Greek woman identified as Anna K, who ran a Greek restaurant next to De Rocco's. She was caught in the crossfire after leaving the cafe as the dispute escalated, and died from internal bleeding in the arms of her husband at the scene.

The two other victims were men of Turkish origin aged 26 and 29. The first was described by police as an attacker, whose 21-year-old brother was seriously injured and under police protection in hospital last night. The second dead man was said to have been sitting at the table when the men opened fire.

The attack has raised fears that provincial Germany is becoming a battleground for gang warfare after an incident almost exactly a year ago in which six Italians were gunned down at an Italian-run pizzeria in Duisburg, north-west of Frankfurt. It was quickly established that the Calabrian mafia, known as the 'Ndrangheta, was responsible for that shootout and had taken advantage of the relative obscurity of provincial Germany to continue a decades-old feud. The killings were the first time a mafia syndicate had carried out a revenge attack on foreign soil.

Yesterday police refused to rule out a mafia or organized crime connection in the Rüsselsheim killings, but said the Turkish origin of the victims and attackers in the latest incident suggested the attacks were not linked. "We don't know why the attack took place in the ice-cream parlor," Roland Desch of Hessen police said.

The brutality of the killings has shocked Germany and raised concerns that it is becoming a hub for economic crime.

"This is a very complex case," said Stefan Müller of the state of Hesse crime squad. He added that the killings, which involved knives as well as two guns, could have been "honor killings" which either had to do with a dispute or were sparked by rivalries between gangs.

The police said there was evidence that a motive for the attack may have been unpaid gambling winnings and it may be linked to another gambling dispute three years ago. At least two of the men involved in the incident were caught up in a dispute involving knives at a Turkish community center in Rüsselsheim last Saturday.