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Two arrested in Berlin van attack

Berlin police have arrested two teenagers in connection with an attack on a van carrying a rabbi and several students.

The suspects, 16- and 18-year-old males, confessed to the crime, according to news reports. Both come from families that immigrated to Germany, and at least one has roots in Lebanon.

The younger of the two reportedly turned himself in after police identified his companion as a suspect in the incident, which occurred on the night of Nov. 1 on a main Berlin avenue. Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal, the director of Chabad Lubavitch in Berlin, was driving home eight rabbinical students in a minivan.

Teichtal, 36, said that as he was driving, he noticed another car “break[ing] in front of us and we changed lanes, and they made a reverse and seemed like they were trying to cause an accident.” He said the men yelled anti-Semitic epithets and continued to tail the Chabad van before throwing “something on fire” at the van.

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