German politician Karin Strenz dies after collapsing on plane | Germany

A lawmaker with Angela Merkel’s party has died after collapsing on a plane during a flight home to Germany.

Karin Strenz, 53, was travelling from Cuba with her husband, said Eckhardt Rehberg, a fellow lawmaker with their centre-right Christian Democratic Union party, according to dpa news agency.

The plane made an emergency landing in Ireland but rescuers were unable to save Strenz, Rehberg said on Sunday. It was unclear what the cause of death was or why she had visited Cuba.

The German parliament’s lower house, the Bundestag, said on Monday she had not been travelling on official parliamentary business.

Prosecutors in the city of Schwerin said they had opened an investigation to determine the cause of death, which is standard practice in such cases, and would request assistance from Ireland. They said they expected an autopsy would be conducted in Ireland.

Strenz had been a member of the German parliament since 2009, representing a constituency in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

She did not plan to seek re-election in Germany’s 26 September election. Early last year, Strenz and another lawmaker were targeted in raids by prosecutors investigating alleged money transfers from Azerbaijan.