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One dead, three injured in knife attack at train station near Munich One dead, three injured in knife attack at train station near Munich
(about 2 hours later)
One person has died and three others have been injured after a man launched a knife attack at a train station in southern Germany that prosecutors said had “an apparent Islamist motive”. One person has died and three others have been injured in knife attack at a train station in southern Germany.
Police arrested the suspected attacker after he was overpowered at the railway station in Grafing, 25 miles south-east of central Munich. Police arrested the suspected attacker after he was overpowered at the station in Grafing, 25 miles south-east of central Munich.
Prosecutors said the person who died was a 50-year-old from the town of Wasserburg. A spokesman said the 56-year-old victim, whose age was initially given by authorities as 50, was wounded by the attacker on a train and died in hospital.
A spokesman for the Bavarian prosecutors’ office said the suspect was a 27-year-old German “who made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive – apparently an Islamist motive”. State interior minister Joachim Herrmann said the suspect, a 27-year-old German, apparently had psychological problems and drug issues, and that investigators have no indications of an Islamic extremist motive, though they are still looking at whether there was a political context to the attack.
“We are still determining what the exact remarks were,” the spokesman added. This contradicted an earlier statement by a spokesman for the Bavarian prosecutors’ office, who said the suspect “made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive – apparently an Islamist motive”.
Police said that according to unverified witness accounts, the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) during the attack, which happened at about 5am local time (0300 GMT). Police had said that according to unverified witness accounts, the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) during the attack, which happened at about 5am local time (3am GMT).
The prosecutors’ office has launched a criminal investigation and denied initial reports it had imposed a news blackout. The railway station was cordoned off by police leading to restrictions on Munich’s S-Bahn rail network. Herrmann said after a cabinet meeting in Munich that the suspect has confessed to carrying out the attack, the news agency DPA reported.
Angelika Obermayr, the mayor of Grafing, described it as “an absolutely peaceful little Bavarian town”. “Something like this is absolutely new and shakes people deeply,” she said. “That it could happen here is absolutely stupefying.” The railway station was cordoned off by police leading to restrictions on Munich’s S-Bahn rail network.
Germany, which is playing a supporting role in the fight against Islamic State, has not suffered the kind of attack by Islamist militants experienced by neighbouring France and Belgium. But ministers have repeatedly warned an attack is possible and German security services are on alert. Angelika Obermayr, the mayor of Grafing, described it a “peaceful little Bavarian town”. “Something like this is absolutely new and shakes people deeply,” she said. “That it could happen here is absolutely stupefying.”
More than 800 homegrown radicals have left Germany to join jihadi groups in Syria and Iraq and about 260 have returned.
Germany has also been a transit country for militants who carried out attacks in Belgium this year and Paris last year.