Germany reports scary clown incidents, fights hoaxes

BERLIN – A man in northern Germany has reported being attacked by someone in a clown costume wielding a baseball bat, while a woman said she was accosted by a man in a clown mask with a chain saw, police said Friday.

Police in Rostock said that a 19-year-old suffered bruises in the baseball bat attack. In the same city on Thursday, a 15-year-old boy reportedly fled after being approached by a clown brandishing a knife.

In Wesel, in western Germany, a woman called police to report that a clown-masked man jumped out of a bush and tried several times to start the chain saw. And in Gelsenkirchen, a person with a clown mask was suspected of wounding a 15-year-old boy with a knife.

The incidents in Germany come as people in multiple U.S. states have reported being menaced by people in clown costumes. Similar incidents have been reported in Britain, too.

In the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate, police urged people to stop posting fake reports about clowns online after a number of recent hoaxes.