Berlin Gripped by Fear as Acid-Throwing Cyclists Target Women

Police in Berlin are investigating a possible link between a series of 'acid' attacks in the German capital, in which women had corrosive liquid sprayed into their faces by cyclists.

Last Monday, a woman was victim of such an attack in the fifth incident of this kind in the capital since December.

The 27-year-old woman was strolling down a street in Friedrichshain, a nightlife district east of the city centre, when an unidentified cyclist approached her and sprayed a liquid in her face.

The exact nature of the liquid, which had splashed on nearby cars during the attack, is not known but the firefighters who neutralized it suspect it was acid according to Die Welt.

The victim, who was rushed to hospital to be treated for serious damage to her eyes, simply described her attacker as 'wearing dark clothes,' police said in a statement.

In January 2017, another woman who was walking home at night was sprayed in the face by a cyclist in Prenzlauer Berg, a few kilometers north of Friedrichshain. She, too, was 27.

And in December, three women were attacked with a skin-irritating liquid in the neighborhoods of Prenzlauer Berg, Weissensee and Charlottenburg.

In one of these attacks, the substance was found to be battery acid. In a second case, investigators found the substance was water which had been squirted from a water gun.