Letter bomb sent to Deutsche Bank CEO 'operational': police

FRANKFURT - Agence France-Presse

File photo of Josef Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank. REUTERS photo

A letter bomb sent to Deutsche Bank chief Josef Ackermann was "operational" and could have exploded, German state police said today after the envelope was intercepted.
 
"Preliminary investigations show it is an operational letter bomb," police in Hesse, the western state where Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters is located, said in a statement.
 
The envelope addressed to the Swiss-born Ackermann, CEO of Germany's biggest bank, arrived at Deutsche Bank's mailroom on Wednesday.
 
The letter had raised suspicion at the mailroom and was x-rayed, after which the police were alerted, the statement said.
 
"Local police, working together with specialists from the Hesse state crime office, defused the explosive," it said.
 
"The investigation continues, thus no further comment on the construction [of the explosive] can be made at this time." It said the Frankfurt prosecutor's office was working together with the Hesse state crime office on the probe.