Knife Attack Shocks Germany; Numerous Injured

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BERLIN/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Germany’s recently elected chancellor has expressed his shock over Friday’s knife attack at the central railway station in the German city of Hamburg that injured more than a dozen people.

Friedrich Merz said the stabbing “was shocking,” but he thanked “the emergency services on the ground for their rapid assistance.”

Hamburg’s fire department said 17 people were injured in the attack, while police claimed they did not yet have a valid figure for the number of victims. Several people among those targeted suffered “life-threatening injuries,” police said.

Hamburg Police detained a 39-year-old German woman at the scene as they carried out a major operation following the attack at the city’s Central Station at about 6 p.m. local time, officials confirmed.

Speaking to the press outside the station, police said they believed the suspect acted alone and did not have a “political motive.”

‘MENTAL DISTRESS’

Instead, they believe she may have been “in a state of mental distress,” Florian Abbenseth, a police spokesperson, told reporters.

The attack happened between platforms 13 and 14 – accessible via a busy main road – while a train was on one of the platforms, according to witnesses. Some of the victims were reportedly treated inside trains and on the street.

The German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said on social media that four platforms at the station had been closed and warned of “delays and diversions in long-distance services.”

While police apparently tried to act quickly, the knife attack added to a sense of insecurity in a nation that has been shaken in recent months by a series of violent attacks by what authorities linked to Muslim extremists or far-right militants.

In the most recent attack, four people were injured in a stabbing at a bar in the city of Bielefeld in north-west Germany on Sunday.

The latest knife was due to bring security again to the top of the political agenda in Germany, Europe’s largest economy.

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