A man attacked several people in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, including a far-right activist. The attacker was neutralized by the police.
A stabbing attack was carried out this Friday, May 31 late in the morning in the city of Mannheim, in the southwest of Germany. The assailant allegedly injured six people with a knife, including a police officer, before being shot by the police, according to various German media. An act qualified as“attack” by the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on X (formerly Twitter).
“According to current information, several people were attacked today on the market square in Mannheim around 11:35 a.m.announces the local police in a press release. A person allegedly attacked several people with a knife and injured them. No information can yet be given on the extent and severity of the injuries. A gun was then used against the attacker. The attacker was also injured.”
The motivations of the attacker are not yet clearly established. But the attack took place on the city’s market square where a rally of the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa (BPE) was held this Friday morning, reports the local newspaper. Mannheimer Morgen. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser raised the possibility of an Islamist act for this attack which occurs a few days before the European elections scheduled for June 9 in the country. “If the investigation reveals an Islamist motive, it will be further confirmation of the great danger posed by Islamist acts of violence, against which we have warned,” she declared in a press release, referring to a “terrible crime”.
According to local police, the attacker first attacked at the end of the morning “to several participants in a gathering” of the “Pax Europa Citizen Movement” (BPE). According to the daily Bild, the attack mainly targeted Michael Stürzenberger, a figure of the German extreme right, who was preparing to intervene at the rally. This 59-year-old man, an activist for the BPE but also for the xenophobic Pegida movement, previously worked, among other things, as press spokesperson for the CSU, the Bavarian conservative party, in Munich.
The victims were hospitalized and some hospitalized urgently. For the moment, the German authorities have not yet communicated on their state of health, like that of the attacker, but have assured that the situation is now secure. Several people were “seriously injured” confirmed Olaf Scholz, in a message published on X (formerly Twitter), evoking images “horrible”. “Violence is absolutely unacceptable in our democracy. The assailant must be severely punished.”
This attack comes in the final stretch of the European elections, during which the German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) notably campaigned on what it considers to be the danger posed by immigration from the Muslim countries.
Update : at 4:14 p.m., with the addition of the statement by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Update : at 6:38 p.m., with the updated casualty report, statements from Nancy Faeser and Olaf Scholz.
