Girl Who Apparently Cut Swastika in Own Cheek Surrenders

A wheelchair-bound schoolgirl who disappeared after apparently making up a story about skinheads carving a swastika on her cheek has surrendered to authorities, German police said Saturday.

A spokesman in Halle said the 17-year-old vanished Thursday after police launched a nationwide search for three skinheads she claimed had attacked her Monday.

Doctors have told investigators they believe the Nazi-emblem cut on her face was self-inflicted.

“We now know where the girl is,” the spokesman said. “She is with her parents at a relative’s house at a location far away from Halle. The relatives phoned us this morning. The girl is expected to be back in Halle tomorrow.”

Saxony-Anhalt state prosecutor Juergen Hossfeld said investigators had concluded the girl made up the story about the attack that had shocked a nation struggling to come to terms with a rise in right-wing violence.

Hossfeld said the girl may have fled because she feared the legal consequences of lying to police.

Police officials in Halle on Saturday declined to say what, if any, charges may be filed against the girl.

Hossfeld said investigators had searched intensively for the alleged culprits but there had been no leads.

He said doubts arose early in the search because no suspects and no witnesses turned up despite a hunt by more than 100 police.

The girl’s cuts were judged to be too uniformly deep to have been the work of an assailant and indicated the wound was self-inflicted, according to doctors working with the investigation.