The forensics examine the scene of the crime at Brokstedt train station.Image: dpa / Jonas Walzberg
Germany
After the fatal attack on a regional train from Kiel to Hamburg, shock, sadness and the question of why remain. Police and prosecutors want to continue their investigation into the attack in which two people died and seven were injured on Thursday. The crime triggered a large-scale operation by police and rescue workers on Wednesday and caused horror far beyond Schleswig-Holstein.
A 33-year-old stateless Palestinian is said to have stabbed several passengers while driving. According to Transport Minister Claus Ruhe Madsen (independent), there has never been a comparable serious violent crime on a train in Schleswig-Holstein.
Undertakers carry the dead victims off the train at night.Image: dpa / Jonas Walzberg
Press conference on the status of the investigation
Two victims died, seven people were injured according to initial findings. The alleged perpetrator, who was overpowered by witnesses, was also injured. The fatalities are a 16-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man. That said Schleswig-Holstein’s Interior Minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack (CDU) on Thursday in Kiel.
On Thursday (2 p.m.) Sütterlin-Waack and the head of the Itzehoe police department, Frank Matthiesen, want to comment on the status of the investigation at a press conference in Kiel.
Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of the Interior, Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, will provide information on the current status of the investigation on Thursday.Image: dpa / Jonas Walzberg
Many questions remained unanswered in the hours after the crime. “The background is still unclear,” said a police spokeswoman on Wednesday. There were initial indications that the alleged attacker could be mentally confused, as the German Press Agency learned from security circles. According to preliminary findings, he had not been noticed as an extremist in northern Germany.
According to information from “Spiegel” and “Welt”, the man is said to have made several appearances to the police and, according to NDR, has several previous convictions. As dpa learned from security circles, he is said to have been imprisoned until last week. According to NDR and “Spiegel”, he was last in custody.
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Courageous witnesses stopped the perpetrator
Investigators questioned dozens of witnesses from the train, which was carrying around 120 passengers, at an inn near the township’s small train station in the Steinburg district. Apparently brave passengers were able to prevent worse, they overpowered the attacker and held him down.
After the crime, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) also expressed her sympathy for those affected. “All our thoughts are with the victims of this terrible act and their families,” the politician wrote on Twitter. This is “shattering news”. Sütterlin-Waack rushed to the crime scene in the afternoon and was informed. She had learned of the crime during a state parliament session. Her thoughts are with the families and relatives of the victims.
Günther: “It’s a terrible day.”
Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) spoke of a terrible and senseless act in Kiel on Wednesday evening. “Schleswig-Holstein is mourning – it’s a terrible day,” said Günther. He thinks of all those who mourned and feared for the injured. His thoughts and prayers are with the people and their families. The head of government thanked the emergency services for their work and also those who had taken care of the passengers and witnesses on the train and the injured.
Deutsche Bahn expressed its deepest condolences to the families of the victims. “We wish the injured a speedy and full recovery.”
On Thursday night, the dead victims were taken by undertakers from the train parked at the Neumünster train station, as a dpa photographer saw. Forensic security was also active. Schleswig-Holstein’s Ministry of the Interior ordered mourning flags to be displayed on Thursday.
(nik/with material from dpa)
Activists have entrenched themselves in the town of Lützerath in the Rhenish lignite mining area, which the energy company RWE wants to excavate in order to extract the lignite underneath. For days they have been blocking the eviction that began on Wednesday and is progressing. The last building in the village was cleared on Friday, the Aachen police said on Friday evening.
