Knife attack in Germany kills one and injures four others
Police said they were uncertain if attack is related to terrorism
One person has been stabbed to death in a Hamburg supermarket and four people have been injured after being attacked by a man wielding a knife.
German police said the suspected attacker fled the shop in the Barmbek district of the north German city and headed towards a metro station, but was followed by eyewitnesses who tackled him to the ground. The man was then arrested by plainclothes police officers. The man was slightly injured.
One of the four victims injured in the attack is in serious condition. The person who was killed was described by police as a customer.
Timo Zill, a spokesman for Hamburg police, said: “What we know at this stage is that the person was male, that he was armed with a knife and entered the supermarket, and sought out his victims and started stabbing them randomly. He’s injured but not seriously. We can say that we have one dead person in the Edeka market and four further people are injured.”
Zill said he had no information as to the man’s motive. “First reports about a possible robbery cannot be confirmed so far,” he said.
Nothing has been released about the man’s identity. Police said they were confident he had been acting alone. One eyewitness described his weapon as a kitchen knife.
Police have sealed the area of the crime scene.
Two eyewitnesses to the attack said the man shouted “Allahu Akbar” but police said they were unable to confirm the reports. They declined to say whether the attack was being treated as a terrorist incident.
