German orders dog to attack shoppers, six injured

BERLIN, Aug 13 (Reuters) A drunk, wheelchair-bound German set his dog on shoppers as he verbally abused them in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe, sending at least six people to hospital with injuries, police said today.

''Other than that he was drunk, we can't say what may have motivated the man,'' a Karlsruhe police spokesman said. ''He was German, but he gave the dog the order to attack in French.'' Among those attacked by the Border Collie cross was a policewoman, who was taken to hospital with five other shoppers.

By the time officers subdued the man and his dog, a crowd of some 200 people had gathered, and a number of them were upset at the sight of police grappling with a man in a wheelchair.

''Unfortunately they didn't know what had happened before, and some threw umbrellas at the police,'' said the spokesman.

The 41-year-old man, temporarily wheelchair-bound due to injury, faces prosecution for causing bodily harm, resisting arrest, and verbal slander. The dog was taken to a home.

REUTERS SKB BST2046