BERLIN, July 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Nine people were injured in an attack by
a man wielding a knife on a bus in northern Germany, officials said, although
his motive remained unclear.
The packed bus was on Friday heading in the direction of Travemuende, a
popular beach destination close to the city of Luebeck, when a man pulled the
weapon on passengers, Luebeck chief prosecutor Ulla Hingst said.
Regional interior minister for Schleswig-Holstein state, Hans-Joachim
Grote, told DPA news agency that six people suffered knife wounds and three
others different injuries, while the attacker also punched the bus driver.
“Luckily no-one was killed,” Hingst said.
“The background to the act as well as exactly how it happened are
completely unclear and the objects of our investigation.”
The bus driver had immediately stopped the vehicle, allowing passengers to
escape.
“The passengers jumped out of the bus and were screaming. It was terrible.
Then the injured were brought out. The perpetrator had a kitchen knife,” a
witness who lives close to the scene, Lothar H., told local daily Luebecker
Nachrichten.
Grote said the bus driver had avoided the worst by acting in a “fast and
courageous manner”.
An unnamed female passenger on the bus said one of those injured had only
just given up his seat to an elderly woman, “when the perpetrator stabbed him
in the chest”.
A police car which happened to be close by arrived at the scene quickly,
allowing officers to detain the assailant, the newspaper reported.
Prosecutor Hingst told mass-market daily BILD that the suspected attacker
is “a 34-year-old German citizen of Iranian origin”.
“We have no indication of political radicalisation of any kind,” she said,
adding that the suspect had so far not spoken about the incident.
He is due to appear before a judge on Saturday.
DPA reported that the man ignited a bag he was carrying with fire
accelerants. There was no trace of explosives, the agency added.
Police from Schleswig-Holstein said on Twitter that “people were injured.
No one was killed. The perpetrator was overpowered and is now in police
custody.”
While the motive has not yet been established, Germany has been on high
alert after several deadly Islamist extremist attacks.
– Jihadist attack risk –
Security services had long warned of the threat of more violence after
several attacks claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, the bloodiest of
which was a truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016
that left 12 people dead.
That attacker, Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri, hijacked a truck and
murdered its Polish driver before killing another 11 people and wounding
dozens more by ploughing the heavy vehicle through the festive market in
central Berlin.
He was shot dead by Italian police in Milan four days later while on the
run.
Germany has since been targeted again in attacks with radical Islamist
motives.
In July 2017, a 26-year-old Palestinian asylum seeker wielding a knife
stormed into a supermarket in the northern port city of Hamburg, killing one
person and wounding six others before being detained by passers-by.
German prosecutors said the man likely had a “radical Islamist” motive.
IS also claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in 2016, including
the murder of a teenager in Hamburg, a suicide bombing in the southern city
of Ansbach that wounded 15, and an axe attack on a train in Bavaria that left
five injured.
In June, German police said they foiled what would have been the first
biological attack with the arrest of a Tunisian suspected jihadist in
possession of the poison ricin and bomb-making material.
Germany remains a target for jihadist groups, in particular because of its
involvement in the coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, and its
deployment in Afghanistan since 2001.
Security services estimate there are around 11,000 Islamist radicals in
Germany, some 980 of whom are deemed particularly dangerous and capable of
using violence. Around 150 of these potentially dangerous individuals have
been detained for various offences.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has allowed in more than one million asylum
seekers since 2015 — a decision that has driven the rise of the far-right
Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which charges that the influx spells a
heightened security risk.