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A main path in Görlitzer Park in Berlin-Kreuzberg

Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa

Police have arrested another man who is said to have been involved in a rape in Görlitzer Park in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The 22-year-old was caught on Thursday, police and prosecutors said. Because of the alleged sexual offense, the man had been sought by arrest warrant. He is expected to be brought before a magistrate on Friday, said a spokesman for the prosecutor's office.

The police have already arrested two men, each aged 22, for the crime. They are in pre-trial detention. The investigations against possible other suspects are ongoing, according to the police.

On June 21, several men allegedly raped a 27-year-old woman in the early hours of the morning. Her boyfriend, who was the same age, is said to have been injured by the perpetrators and brought to the ground. The case has once again sparked a discussion about safety measures in the park.

»The current state of the park is shameful«

Meanwhile, calls for large-scale measures to curb crime in the park are also increasing. SPD state and parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh, for example, considers the conditions there to be unacceptable. "The current state of the park is shameful. What you can't tolerate is a lawless space in which people's safety is no longer guaranteed," the politician told the dpa news agency.

"I have always said that the freedom of our city of Berlin can only endure with certainty for everyone in public space," Saleh emphasized. "People who do not want to accept this basic requirement and commit acts of violence in or around the park must be prosecuted with the severity of our constitutional state."

Police chief Barbara Slowik had demanded, among other things, viable concepts for lighting, waste disposal, toilets and playgrounds at Görlitzer Park. She also suggested fencing the park area and restricting access in time.

Berlin's Senator for Economic Affairs, Franziska Giffey, also called for the park to be closed at nightfall – "just as many parks in other cities around the world are closed at night," she wrote.

For the police, Görlitzer Park and the adjacent Wrangelkiez have been a focal point for many years in view of the crime burden.

aeh/dpa