At least two people were killed and seven injured in a stabbing attack, the alleged perpetrator of which was arrested, on a regional train traveling in northern Germany, police said on Wednesday.
The attack took place on Wednesday followingnoon on a regional train from Kiel (Schleswig-Holstein) to Hamburg, said a Flensburg police spokesman.
The alleged perpetrator, who is said to be between 20 and 30 years old, was arrested at Brokstedt station, where the regional train was immobilized.
The reason for the attack has not yet been established, according to the police, adding that all leads are being studied, from the act of an extremist to the gesture of an unbalanced person.
Witnesses to the attack described a ‘panic scene’ on the train, writes the media Bild on its website.
A large array of police vehicles and ambulances has been deployed around the station, according to photos published by Bild. The railway company Deutsche Bahn announced that trains would be canceled on the main lines.
‘Appalling act’
“The act committed on the regional train between Kiel and Hamburg upsets me deeply,” reacted the regional Minister of the Interior, Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, denouncing an “appalling act contrary to all humanity”.
The German authorities have remained on the alert in recent years in the face of the jihadist threat, particularly since a ram truck attack claimed by the Islamic State group which killed 12 people in December 2016 in Berlin. This jihadist attack is the deadliest ever committed on German soil.
Germany remains a target for jihadist groups, in particular because of its involvement in the coalition fighting the IS group in Iraq and Syria and in the one that had been deployed in Afghanistan following 2001.
Since 2013 and until the end of 2021, the number of Islamists considered dangerous in Germany has increased fivefold to currently stand at 615, according to the Interior Ministry. That of the Salafists is estimated at around 11,000, twice as many as in 2013.
After a warning from the FBI, the German authorities announced on January 8 the arrest of two Iranians suspected of having wanted to commit an ‘Islamist’ chemical attack using ricin and cyanide.
Another threat hangs over Germany, embodied by the far right, following several deadly attacks in recent years targeting community or religious places.
While this latter phenomenon is of great concern to the authorities today, it is not totally new. Between 2000 and 2007, a neo-Nazi group called NSU had already murdered nine migrants and a policewoman. Two of its members committed suicide before their arrest and the third, a woman, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
/ATS
