Softly-spoken pensioner Marlene Bothge seems an unlikely owner of a ,volt stun gun, but after her neighbours stole the light bulbs from the corridor of the seven-storey tower block in which she used to live, she no longer felt safe without it. I should not feel threatened in my own home. As we talk outside the crumbling tower block, now surrounded by rubbish, discarded furniture and human excrement, Mrs Bothge fidgets nervously with her long grey plait.
This was her home for 18 years until she and her husband moved out of their fifth-floor flat in November when the filth, noise and crime became unbearable. Feared: Gangs of Romanian migrants now congregate in areas of Duisburg which has forced many German inhabitants out. In the past 12 months, Romanians and Bulgarians have moved into the block of 46 flats in Rheinhausen, a once-respectable suburb of the German city of Duisburg.
Local officials claim they have migrated here en masse in anticipation of the social welfare they will be entitled to next year.
Those villages are now deserted, while in Duisburg, flats designed for families of three or four have up to 15 people squeezed into them. Unable to work or speak German, and with the schools already full, the Romanians and Bulgarians congregate in their dozens outside the tower block each day. The neighbourhood is now a hotspot for crime and anti-social behaviour. Bad attitude: This gypsy boy shows his disdain at being snapped, while right, Roma woman Maria Marin in headscarf would like to come to the UK next year.
Gradually they have nearly all moved out as the new arrivals have moved in. There are now only three German families left. Housewife Mrs Bothge quietly explains why. They have working toilets so I cannot understand it. There were rats everywhere and the noise was so bad at night. They stripped the corridors of everything.
