Turkish Grocery Bombed in Germany

A Turkish-owned grocery store was set on fire Sunday, injuring 10 people who lived above the shop, police said.

Unknown assailants were seen hurling gasoline bombs into the shop in the center of the Rhine-side industrial town at dawn, police said.

Apartments above the storefront were evacuated, and 10 residents suffering from smoke inhalation were taken to a hospital. All but one were released by noon.

Police said it was not clear whether the attack was motivated by neo-Nazi xenophobia.

Firebombs hurled by neo-Nazis killed three Turks in a blaze last November in the northern city of Moelln. That attack prompted a government crackdown on neo-Nazis and other rightist gangs responsible for 18 months of assaults on foreigners, including the large Turkish immigrant community.

In Muecheln, in the eastern German state of Saxony Anhalt, some 50 asylum-seekers were evacuated from a refugee home after a bomb threat Saturday night, police said. No explosives were found.