Two killed, several wounded in knife attack on train in Germany

Two people were killed and several others wounded in a knife attack on a regional train in northern Germany Wednesday, police said, announcing that the alleged assailant had been captured.

The stabbings occurred on a train traveling between the cities of Hamburg and Kiel, a spokesman for the federal police force said.

The suspect was taken into custody at the railway station in the town of Brokstedt.

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It was not immediately clear how many people had been injured or how serious their condition was. Media reports cited around five wounded.

Regional Interior Minister Sabine Suetterlin-Waack said she was “shocked” by the attack and that her “thoughts were with the families and loved ones of the victims.”

She added that federal and state police were “working closely together” to determine a motive.

Germany’s national rail company said some trains on the line between Hamburg and Kiel had been canceled to allow police to conduct their investigation.

Germany has been hit in recent years by several deadly knife attacks, some carried out by extremists and others by people suffering from serious psychological problems.

A German court in December sentenced a Syrian-born man to 14 years in prison for an extremist knife attack on a train in which he injured four passengers.

Last year a German court committed a Somali man to a psychiatric hospital after he stabbed three people to death in the southern city of Wuerzburg in 2021.

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