One man was killed, and three were stabbed A German national stabbed three passengers at a train station near Munich early on Tuesday, after a 27 year old knife-wielding assailant reportedly shouting “Allahu Akbar” attacked people at Grafing train station 32 km southeast of Munich at about 5 a.m. local time.
Tödliche #Messerattacke am Bahnhof #Grafing: Erste Videobilder vom #Tatort. #Ebersberghttps://t.co/RfZchSJHqm
— BR24 (@BR24) May 10, 2016
The attack might have an Islamist motive, officials said. “The perpetrator made remarks during the attack which point to there being a political motive,” Bavarian police said in a statement, adding he had been arrested and there were no further suspects. Apart from “Allahu Akbar” the man was heard shouting “unbelievers,” Das Bild newspaper reported, citing local witnesses.
The prosecutor has confirmed the death of a 50-year-old man. He added that “two people are badly wounded, one is in critical condition.” The three injured are aged 58, 43 and 55. The “assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive – apparently an Islamist one,” Ken Heidenreich, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, told AFP. “We are still determining what the exact remarks were.”
The 27-year-old German citizen stabbed a newspaper delivery man in the back, a firefighter told the Merkur paper. The attacker is reportedly from the city of Hesse in central Germany. He doesn’t have a migrant background, the ARD broadcaster said. According to German law enforcers, the alleged perpetrator was arrested on the spot. He has no criminal record.
“The idea that people enter the station or deliver newspapers there and then become victims of a maniac is terrible. Hopefully they will recover completely,” the town’s mayor Angelika Obermayr told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “I am most grateful to the police, doctors, paramedics and our firefighters who reacted quickly on the scene.”
According to RT, the interior minister of the state of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, confirmed that the perpetrator was a German national, without providing details on the incident. “When it comes to revealing more about their background, or whether mental illness or drug addiction played a role, these are things that require further clarification. I think we will make further announcements on this later in the day.”
Bayerischer Rundfunk identified the attacker as Paul H., a young man with mental health problems. ARD cited sources claiming he was also a drug addict.
The station has been closed following the attack. “The station is a crime scene,” and specialists will be working there, a police spokesman told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
This is not the first knife attack in Germany that has an apparent Islamist motive. In February, a 15-year-old girl, Safia S., stabbed a police officer at the main train station in Hannover. According to prosecutors, the girl had “embraced radical jihadist ideology of the foreign terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.” In September 2015, a 41-year-old, Rafik Y. of Iraqi origin, seriously injured a female officer in Berlin. The attacker was later revealed as a known Islamic extremist.
Der Messerstecher von #Grafing war nach BR-Informationen “ein nicht polizeibekannter Deutscher”. Das LKA ermittelt. http://pic.twitter.com/8UY3IlDT81
— BR24 (@BR24) May 10, 2016
via http://ift.tt/1Oe9vYG Tyler Durden