Germany was the scene of a new knife attack, an act of violence that “bothered” the German chancellor Friedrich Merz. It took place on the platform of the Central Station of Hamburg, the second most populous city in the country. Eighteen people were injured and the author allegedly stabbed was arrested.
• Seriously injured travelers
The Hamburg station was very busy at the beginning of the weekend when the attack occurred on Friday. Around 6 PM, a woman armed with a knife attacked travelers who were on one of the docks and waited for her train. An important rescue operation was organized to help victims, some of them treated civilians.
In a first report communicated about an hour after the attack, emergency services reported 12 injured. At night, a provisional evaluation indicated that 17 people had been injured and that four of them were critical. This Saturday morning, these figures were reviewed once again since the police said that 18 people from 19 to 85 had been injured in total.
Among these 18 victims, seven were slightly injured, seven seriously and four very seriously. Among these are a woman and a 24 -year -old man, a 52 -year -old woman and another 85. Her vital prognosis was a committed time, but now they are in a stable state.
• The suspect presents signs of “psychic disease”
Shortly after the facts, the alleged perpetrator of the knife attack was neutralized by two passersby, by the police and was arrested “without opponent resistance,” said the police. The suspect, 39 and the German national, presents “very specific clues to psychic disease,” said German police.
According to Florian Abbenseth, a police spokesman, this woman has “acted alone” and there have been “so far, there are no indications that women have been able to act for political reasons,” he told the ARD channel.
“There are no clues that the suspect was under the influence of psychotropic substances (alcohol or drugs) at the time of the facts,” the police added. No additional details were provided about their psychiatric history.
This Saturday morning, the alleged assailant was still in police custody. It must be presented to a judge during the day to decide his internment in a psychiatric hospital.
• Battle attacks multiplying
In recent months, Germany has experienced several attacks of fatal weapons that have shocked the country. At the end of January, a child and a two -year -old man died in a knife attack committed in a park in southern Germany for a 28 -year -old Afghan, with a strong psychiatric history, who attacked a group of schoolchildren.
Last Saturday, four people were injured during an assault on the knife in front of a bar in the center of Bielefeld, in the west of the country. The alleged author is a 35 -year -old Syrian arrested by the authorities that suspect an Islamist attack. The assault on the knife of a 12 -year -old schoolnial in the courtyard of his school for one of his 13 -year -old comrades also arrived at the press headlines this week.
According to the statistics of the Criminal Police, some 8,900 stabbed attacks in Germany were committed in 2023, which represents just under 6% of the category of violence “that resulted in serious and dangerous body lesions.” In 2022, this figure was 8,160 and the previous year of 7,071 cases.
Under pressure to reduce the number of this violence, the German government barely tightened the legislation on the use of knives, prohibited in public meetings and in long distance transport. The cities have also decreed areas where the port of the knife is prohibited, such as the Hamburg station. So many measures whose effectiveness is questioned by police experts and unions.
Source: BFM TV
