Investigators were looking Saturday for an intention behind an assault in the German city of Wuerzburg in which a man equipped with a long knife killed three individuals and injured five others, while authorities applauded passers-by who attempted to stop the aggressor.
Police said two of those hospitalized remained in dangerous condition Saturday.
The suspect, a 24-year-old Somali, was halted with a shot to the leg by police and arrested after the Friday evening assault in the southern city’s midtown region. Police said his life was not at serious risk and he has been admitted in a hospital.
The man had lived in Wuerzburg since 2015, in an asylum for the destitute. He clearly didn’t have a clue about the people in question.
Michael Dauber, whose shop is close to the location of the assault, said he saw individuals fleeing in alarm.
“It was indistinct for a while what was happening, then, they all began shouting that someone is harming people,” Dauber said. “It was absolutely insane.”
Videos posted online showed people surrounding the assailant and attempting to hold him under control with chairs and sticks.
“I was especially intrigued by the commitment of numerous individuals who attempted to stop the culprit and attempted to hold him under wraps,” Bavarian governor Markus Soeder said. “That was truly noteworthy commitment, and I’m much obliged for that.”
“Presently the conditions must be cleared up, the intentions,” he said in an explanation to journalists in Nuremberg.
Bavaria’s top security official, Joachim Herrmann, said the suspect had been known to police and had been concealed to a mental hospital a couple of days earlier.
He told news agency dpa late Friday that he was unable to preclude an Islamic extremist motive since one observer had reported hearing the suspect yell “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is extraordinary.” In any case, government investigators — who in Germany manage terrorism and national security— hadn’t assumed control over the case by Saturday.
Individuals laid blossoms and candles at the location of the assault.
“All of Bavaria is grieving today,” said Soeder, who added that he would arrange banners flown at half-mast in the state.
Wuerzburg police’s use of a shot to the leg to stop the attacker is average for Germany. Bavaria’s principles on utilization of police weapons express that guns ought to just be utilized to make culprits unfit to assault or escape, and that a shot which is sure to kill is only allowed in the event that it is the best way to forestall peril to the existence of others.
