A knife-wielding 60-year-old man “with mental health problems” attacked passengers on a regional train in western Austria, seriously wounding two, police said. The attack is the latest in a string of knife assaults in Europe. The suspect was arrested.
The knife attack took place on a regional train traveling between the Austrian towns of Bludenz and Feldkirch in westernmost Vorarlberg province at around 6.30am local time on Thursday, AP reported. A police statement said that a 19-year old man suffered wounds to the stomach and back. The other victim, a 17-year old male, had a throat injury. Both were hospitalized.
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Amoklauf in Zug in Vorarlberg: Deutscher sticht auf zwei Fahrgäste ein.https://t.co/MeIMQPwqpp http://pic.twitter.com/2InebXn9Ni— Kronen Zeitung (@krone_at) August 16, 2016
Vorarlberg police spokeswoman Elisabeth Engelhardt said police were searching for a motive as they questioned the man but “at this point there is no knowledge” of a copycat attack. “We assume that the perpetrator is mentally confused,” she said in an email.
After the train driver had alerted the emergency services, the attacker was arrested immediately once the train arrived at the nearest station. During arrest the assailant fought back, forcing the police to deploy pepper spray. A 22-year-old man who helped the officers during the arrest was slightly injured in his hand.
“The attacker obviously had mental problems,” Horst Spitzhofer, spokesman for the Austrian police, said later in the day.
https://t.co/JuVodGG6jW Messerattacke im Zug! Täter hat “deutschen Pass”! #merkelsommer http://pic.twitter.com/ZZc3ueQ6yN
— Harald Maier (@Harald70199) August 16, 2016
The train continued on its journey after the attacker had been arrested.
Messerattacke in Zug der #ÖBB in #Vorarlberg #Österreich
2 Verletztehttps://t.co/FSsktBXYgU http://pic.twitter.com/p133sNkOi1— WolfgangH (@Wolfgang_H) August 16, 2016
The incident is the latest in a spate of knife attacks involving various
motives that have happened across Europe in the last few weeks. On
Saturday, six passengers were injured when a 27-year-old man, also armed
with a knife, set light to flammable liquid inside a train in the Swiss
canton of St. Gallen. In early August, a 19-year-old suspect attacked
people at Russell Square in central London, killing one woman and
injuring five. Police said terrorist motivations were also investigated,
though the attacker’s mental health “raised concerns.”
Earlier in July, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee badly injured four passengers with an ax and a knife on a commuter train bound for the town of Wuerzburg in northern Bavaria, Germany. He was shot dead by police when trying to leave the train. Islamic State claimed it was behind the attack, which it said came in retaliation for the West’s operation against the terrorist group. Previously, German police warned that national railways are vulnerable to new terrorist threats that might happen at any time, including lone wolf attacks.
In May at a train station in the German state of Bavaria, a 27-year-old German man who had been in psychiatric care stabbed commuters, killing one and wounding three others before being apprehended by police. Last year, a heavily armed gunman opened fire on a high-speed Amsterdam to Paris train but was overpowered by two young American servicemen and their companion.
Railway passengers are subject to increased security threats “that could manifest themselves in a successful attack at any time,” the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said in an internal report cited by Focus magazine.
via http://ift.tt/2aYlHgN Tyler Durden