3 E. Germans in Truck Crash Way Across ‘Bridge of Spies’
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WEST BERLIN — Three men in a flatbed truck today crashed through steel barricades blocking Glienicker Bridge in Communist East Germany and roared over the “bridge of spies” into West Berlin, police said.
The dramatic escape across the bridge made famous by numerous East-West spy exchanges over the years occurred shortly before dawn, said a West Berlin police spokesman.
Police at the scene said the 7 1/2-ton truck was loaded with empty propane gas tanks in an attempt to discourage border guards from firing their weapons.
The East German border police apparently did not open fire, and the three men fled uninjured, a police spokesman said.
The truck crashed through two steel gates and an electrified fence on the East German side, raced across the bridge and smashed through another control gate in West Berlin.
The three men--two of them 37 and the other 27--then reported to West Berlin police.
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