At least two people have been killed, including a child, in a mass stabbing at a historic but now crime-plagued park in a Bavarian town.
UPDATE 1600 — Suspect known to police, ‘mentally ill’
The 28-year-old Afghan suspect was already known to police and “mentally disturbed”, local German language newspaper Main-Echo carries in its latest updates on the Aschaffenburg attack. They state security service sources who say the man was a registered refugee and that a local refugee accommodation had been searched by police after the attack, but emphasise no officially confirmation of these assertions has yet been forthcoming.
Apparently, police are still not discussing any motives.
Understandably, the stress of responding to a crime scene with dead and gravely injured children has been so traumatic first responders are receiving psychological counselling.
The newspaper states they spoke to a local politician in Aschaffenburg who told them the killings reminds him of the Würzburg attack. To remind readers, in Würzburg in 2021 a Somali asylum seeker living in the city went on a knife rampage, stabbing ten people — all women — three of whom died. One of the deceased was an 82-year-old woman who threw herself between the knifeman and a child he was attacking, while another was a 49-year-old woman while defending another child the Somali was trying to stab.
The killings sparked some heated debate which were angrily dismissed by the then-mayor of Würzburg Christian Schuchardt, a party colleague of Angela Merkel, who criticised the public for stereotyping migrants by linking the knifeman’s refugee status to the stabbings. As reported then, he claimed: “the crimes of individuals can never be traced back to population groups, religions or nationalities. We Germans were not condemned in general after the Second World War either. Nor does this now apply to Somalis or refugees in general. This pigeonholing must come to an end”.
“How would you feel as a foreigner in our city today?”, the mayor asked rhetorically in 2021.
UPDATE 1400 — Slain child two years old, suspect an Afghan national
The latest on the Aschaffenburg park attack is that the two people who were killed were a two-year-old boy suffering “multiple stab wounds” and a 41-year-old man. The arrested suspect is a 28-year-old Afghan male, so says local police in a statement.
The number of “seriously injured” people has been revised up from two to four, including another child and three adults, Germany’s Die Welt relates.
Distressingly, the newspaper states the attack may have been on a group of day-care children who had been taken out to the park for a walk by their teachers. It reports the attacker followed the group, and when they tried to leave the area he attacked, allegedly “specifically targeting the children”.
The deceased adult male is reported to have put himself between the knifeman and the children.
It is further asserted that “The police are said to have ruled out a terrorist background.”
The original story continues below
Police locked down the Schöntal park close to the city centre of the town of Aschaffenburg in Bavaria, Germany around Wednesday midday after “several” people were stabbed. Police later stated two people had died, an adult and a child, and that two people in “serious” condition were receiving hospital treatment.
Initially two suspects were arrested, but one of them was quickly released and treated as a witness. A nearby railway was also shut down as it is reported the suspect attempted to flee over the tracks.
dpatop – 22 January 2025, Bavaria, Aschaffenburg: Fire and rescue service vehicles are parked near the scene of a crime. According to initial findings, several people have been seriously injured, presumably by a stabbing weapon, in an act of violence in a park. Photo: Ralf Hettler/dpa (Photo by Ralf Hettler/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Authorities have not yet made public any information about the background to the attack or any motive of the alleged knifeman. But police say there is no further danger to the public and they believe they are holding the only attacker.
German newspaper Bild states the Schöntal park was reclassified as a “dangerous place” by police late last year due to robberies and drug use in the area. This declaration means it is subject to more frequent police foot patrols which may account for the speed with which the suspect was apprehended, it is stated.
This story is developing, more follows.
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