2 Dead after knife attack aboard train in north Germany

Berlin, Jan 25 (EFE).- Two of the nine people stabbed Wednesday aboard a train traveling through the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein succumbed to their injuries and four others were badly hurt, German authorities said.

The assailant, described as a man in his 20s, began attacking fellow passengers as the southbound train from Kiel to Hamburg was approaching the station in Bokstedt, police said.

The attacker suffered minor injuries and was also taken to the hospital.

While a report on the website of newsweekly Focus identified the man as a Syrian, the online edition of tabloid Bild said he is Palestinian.

Schleswig-Holstein’s interior minister, Sabine Suetterlin-Waack, subsequently told dpa that the assailant was a 33-year-old Palestinian.

Ntv television cited unnamed police sources as saying that the assailant appeared to be mentally unbalanced.

The first calls to police came shortly before 3:00 pm and by the time officers arrived and the train was stopped, several passengers had subdued the attacker.

“The knife attack in a regional train is shocking news. All our thoughts are with the victims of this terrible act and their families,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

“The background to the crime is now being investigated at full speed,” she said. EFE gc/dr