Hamburg: Authorities were aware that the man suspected of going on a deadly stabbing spree at a Hamburg supermarket had shown signs of radicalization prior to the incident, officials said on Saturday.
Before Friday’s attack, which left one person dead and six others injured, the man had previously been documented as a radical, said Andy Grote, Interior Minister of the northern German city.
Authorities are still unsure about what drove the 26-year-old failed asylum-seeker to carry out the attack but there are clues pointing towards a religious motivation as well as mental health issues.
“It could have happened to any of us,” Grote said, noting that the six people injured in the attack were all in non-life threatening condition.
A 50-year-old man was killed, while one 50-year-old woman and four men aged between 19 and 64 suffered stabbing injuries, some of them severe. A 35-year-old man was also injured while overpowering the suspect.
In the early hours of Saturday, German police searched the Hamburg refugee shelter where the suspect had lived. He was arrested following the attack, though his nationality has not yet been confirmed.
He allegedly attacked several people at random with a kitchen knife at an Edeka supermarket in the district of Barmbek before trying to flee.
Mayor Olaf Scholz said it was a “malicious attack,” adding that the alleged attacker was a foreigner whom authorities had tried to deport but couldn’t because he didn’t have the required documents.
“What makes me even more angry is that the suspect is supposed to be somebody who is demanding protection in Germany and then turned his hate on us,” Scholz added. — dpa
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