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German Defense Minister Injured at Pentagon by Security Barricade
German Defense Minister Rudolph Scharping was injured Tuesday in an accident involving a pop-up security barricade at the Pentagon, where he had been scheduled to meet with U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen.
The car carrying Scharping was moving through a security guard station when a steel barrier popped out of the ground, struck the car from below and lifted it slightly into the air, according to Detlef Puhl, a German Defense Ministry spokesman who was riding in a car behind Scharping's.
The accident bent the frame of the car, severely damaging it.
Puhl said Scharping got out of the car and lay down on the ground. Cohen, waiting on the Pentagon steps to greet the minister, rushed to his side.
The German minister was bleeding from the head and leg, one of his aides said. Scharping's glasses were broken.
He walked without assistance into the Pentagon, where he was examined by Cohen's staff doctor and taken by ambulance to a hospital, said an official from Defense Protective Service, the Pentagon's police force.
Scharping's attache, Brig. Gen. Peter Goebel, suffered a bloody nose in the incident and was also taken to Arlington Hospital in suburban Virginia for precautionary tests. Both men were described by an aide to the minister as awake and alert.
A U.S. security agent also suffered minor injuries, including an abrasion on his chin, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said.
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