German official slams online ‘incitement’ after mask killing

Media and police in front of a petrol station in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. A 49-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder (Thomas Frey/dpa via AP)

Germany’s health minister has partly blamed “incitement” against the government’s pandemic rules on social media for the killing of a petrol station worker by a man who refused to wear a face mask.

A 49-year-old German man was arrested on Sunday over the the fatal shooting a day earlier in the western town of Idar-Oberstein. Authorities said the suspect told officers he rejected the measures against the coronavirus.