this is d.w. news live from berlin choked to death as they cowered in basements rebels in dubai in eastern guta say more than forty people have been killed in a chemical attack syria and its allies claim it's a fabrication but the u.s. warns damascus there will be a quote big price to pay. the. police in the german city of munster scramble to understand why a man drove a van into a crowd killing two people authorities say there's no evidence of an islamist connection but they're investigating all other possibilities. and voting is underway in hungary's general election where prime minister viktor or about is

expected to secure a third term on casting his ballot orbán who ran a populist anti migration campaign said he was fighting for the future of hungary we'll go live to budapest. by michelle henery welcome to the show u.s. president donald trump has said syrian president bashar al assad will have a big price to pay for launching a deadly chemical weapons attack on civilians trump's comments on twitter come after rebels and medics allege that dozens of people died in a suspected chemical attack in eastern guta aid organizations say at least one bomb filled with poisonous chemicals was dropped on duma the last major rebel stronghold near the capital damascus the syrian regime and its ally russia say the allegations are a fabrication. let's go to washington we're correspondent claire richardson is standing

by clare it's been just hours since we heard about this attack but why has the u.s. been so quick to get involved here. hi michel yeah the u.s. state department was quick to respond to say that it's monitoring these reports and significantly they've called for an immediate response from the international community as well as criticize russia for its ongoing support of bashar al assad's regime now they said that it is russia who is ultimately responsible for this possible chemical weapons attack because of its continued support for the syrian government its perhaps its strongest ally so now this all puts donald trump in a rather as sticky situation if you'll remember just last week he said he wanted to pull all u.s. troops out of syria but didn't offer a clear timeline of when he was going to do it so now we're seeing him on twitter calling the chemical weapons attack and atrocity also criticizing former president

barack obama for not using military force after evidence that the syrian government carried out another chemical attack that killed almost one and a half thousand people are going to have to decide whether he wants to get the u.s. out of syria as he said or take some kind of more concerted action and he's even threatened a big price in response to this alleged chemical weapons attack what are his options here. it's possible trump could pursue military strikes to try and punish the assad regime. like he did about a year ago when he carried out a military strike on an air base that followed another chemical weapons attack by the syrian government and so that was the united states first direct military action against syria and we could very well see him do that again or you could do nothing beyond criticizing the government as we've seen so the white house homeland security adviser said this week that all options are and are on the table nothing

should be taken off so this point i think it seems that anything is possible and with transformers for twitter we're lucky to find out sooner than later clear richest in washington thank you very much. german police have reportedly for old a knife attack at berlin's half marathon which took place today police confirmed they detained several men one of them is reportedly suspected of planning to attack spectators and participants in the race local media report the suspects may have been linked to i'm nice and really a failed asylum seeker who killed twelve people in december two thousand and sixteen when he drove a truck into a crowded berlin marketplace. for more on the story i'm now joined by political correspondent brant hans welcome

what do we know at this point what we know at this point is that six people were arrested in connection with the half marathon which was run here in berlin today thirty two thousand people participated in this marathon and there must have been a very very large number of spectators as well so the city was full of people and there was a large police presence but these arrests in fact didn't happen near the marathon but in various apartments that were being searched by the police and a couple of vehicles that were also searched so it was in a sense a preventative wrist preventative address because these people apparently have been under surveillance for quite a long time because they were associated with an attacker who drove a truck into a christmas marketeer unburden late in two thousand and sixteen a christmas time in two thousand and sixteen since then these six people apparently were under surveillance by the police and apparently the police decided today actually tourists perhaps because of what happened in one store yesterday that the

police decided to err on the side of caution and take them into custody indeed the police have confirmed that because of this attack and one story yesterday where a vehicle drove into a crowded space they wanted to make sure that nothing similar was possible. here in berlin and these people that they had been watching for quite a while who seem to have had quite a intense interest in the marathon its roots of this organization they seemed to think that it was better to arrest them nol than to wait and see whether they were actually going to execute an attack and with these arrests at this berlin half marathon one can't but help draw parallels between this and the boss the attacks of the boston marathon in two thousand and thirteen. are sporting events soft targets obviously sporting events are soft targets especially a marathon which you know concerns a large large number of people in this and a route which is very difficult to control even if thousands tens of thousands of

people are in a soccer stadium as we have seen for instance that attacks in paris some time ago on the start of wrong so here in germany a soccer game was called off. a couple of years ago when there was a possibility of a threat against that crowd sporting events but in general large crowds that assemble in places such as marketplaces a big squares all for music events and so on obviously are targeted but in addition one has to say that the producers today as well already had increased the security for the marathon because of you know the general situation that one is worried about the possibility of such attacks on such soft targets there was an increase a curate a marathon as you said but our security measures in general higher at public events in the wake of the december two thousand and sixteen attack is indeed i think you can say that a public event certainly in daily life i think what you can say is that there is

possibly an increased awareness amongst people and among security forces there's also increased video surveillance cameras of agents in public spaces but in such large gatherings i think you have to say you know security has been increased quite drastically soccer games as well the controls entering and into a soccer stadium these days a much harder than they used to be a few years ago hans ponte thank you very much. as we've been discussing germany is on high alert after yesterday's deadly crash in monster police there are trying to establish why a man drove his van into a crowd outside a busy restaurant in the historic center of the city two people were killed and dozens more injured germany's interior minister has called the attack a cowardly and brutal crime. people pay their respects to the dead and injured on the streets of munster. yeah it's still

incomprehensible i'm very glad that nothing happened to our daughter who is very close to where it happened. i'm relieved i'm sirleaf that it wasn't a terror attack and i'm saying this with a clear conscience in such a situation one can never say that it is good or bad but i'm relieved it was something different it was. german interior minister host z. hall for visited the site sunday. i am here today minister to convey is the sort of verity in condolences of the entire government especially that of the german chancellor angela merkel in space on the bonus consulate at. the moment carnage hit the historic heart of the city a forty eight year old plowed event into a group of diners sitting outside a popular restaurant a fifty one year old woman and a sixty five year old man was killed and around twenty others were injured in the

incident the driver of the van shot and killed himself shortly afterwards local media said the driver was a german man suffering from mental problems he was also known to police. is the perpetrator was known to police we have had three criminal proceedings against him in minster and one in nearby on spec. it said the dr has run ins with the law with threats property damage for old and leaving the scene of an accident but that all charges have been dismissed. and from what we know so far and we need to stress again and again that we are at the beginning of our investigation we can only tell you that at the moment we have no indications that there is a political background or that other perpetrators were involved. he

says police continue to investigate the man's motives the attack is a painful reminder of the deadly trend a vehicle being used as weapons. for more on the aftermath of this deadly crash new correspondent daniel cope joins us now from the city of munster daniel what more do we know about the victims who died yesterday yes we are learning that the true dems that passed away that got killed in this horrible attack yesterday a man and a woman fifty one and sixty five year old one here from this state of north rhine-westphalia where we are at the moment the other victim from the state of lower saxony from the city of we have not received any information so far if they were here on vacation if they might have visited somebody but you know the the scenery that we are having here at the moment was just like yesterday it was

a peaceful a very sunny day temperatures at around twenty degrees when all of this happened here in the afternoon and then what can you tell us what is the atmosphere like there today in munster how have the residents there reacted. well i guess you can really say that the city is still in shock let's have a little look here at the moment at the moment we can see dozens of flowers dozens of candles here i was reading some of the message chairs that people were writing on one of the banners said the big why and that is of course the question of why all of this happened on another banner we were reading even in this does the difficult time we're even standing closer together just a few moments ago the bells here off the church were ringing at seven thirty pm this evening there is going to be

a church service hundreds of people from the city are expected to join and they will be also praying for the people still in hospital still in very critical condition i guess also when we look a little bit around media outlets from all around the world including c.n.n. and also the stations from france and of course all the other german networks are here at the moment in the cities so yeah lots of people are paying their tribute to their through the victims and praying for the ones still hoping to recover and as the residents are trying to come to terms with this inexplicable act of violence we heard a little from politicians who visited munster today what was their message. well their message basically was we had statements from the german interior minister and also from the president here off this federal state they were both very shocked

they also said that in their minds there are with the families off of the victims and also with the ones still fighting for their lives i really have the feeling that the president of this federal state here was really touched he said there is going to be an in-depth investigation what really happened and yet there's still a lot of question marks just a few moments ago we received the news that has not been yet confirmed by police authorities that apparently in the apartment off the suspect they found gas bottles right now that's what we're learning as i said not confirmed firefighters are in that apartment and trying to make sure that nothing else could happen also we heard also in the report they found this used kalashnikov in the apartment so there is this question what was behind this and does he maybe plan even something bigger. don't know koeppen munster thank you very much. now to some of

the other stories making news around the world christian sewing is expected to take over as c.e.o. of germany's biggest lender deutsche bank so an already heads up to it is private and commercial divisions it's hoped he'll be able to reverse three years of losses the banks current boss john cryan has been criticized for failing to revive the bank securities trading business. france's real network is suffering major disruption once again a third of road workers walked off the job on sunday in protest against the government's plan to overhaul of the state run.