BERLIN (AP) — A man stabbed several members of a group describing itself as opposed to “political Islam” in a central square in the German city of Mannheim on Friday, authorities said, wounding six people, including a police officer who intervened.
Police quickly shot and killed the assailant, but he was also injured.
The attack took place just after 11:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. GMT) on the Market Square, a downtown square in the southwestern city of Mannheim.
The gunman stabbed attendees at an event organised by the Pax Europa group, wounding five members of the group, police and prosecutors said in a statement, adding that a police officer was stabbed multiple times in the head from behind.
The attack was ended when another police officer fired at the assailant, and the injured were taken to several hospitals, some of whom underwent surgery.
Hours later, authorities said they could not yet provide information about the severity of the injuries and that the identity of the assailant had not yet been determined.
Pax Europe describes itself as an organization that informs the public about the dangers posed by the “expansion and growing influence of political Islam.” It said one of the injured was Michael Sturzenberger, an anti-Islam activist who was one of the group's key figures and spoke at the group's event.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faser said it was up to the investigation to determine the motive. “If the investigation sheds light on an Islamist motive, it will once again confirm the great danger of Islamist violence that we have been warning about,” she said in a statement.
“We can't say anything yet about the perpetrator's motive,” said Thomas Strobl of the Väser district office in Baden-Württemberg state, where Mannheim is located.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz posted on X that the “pictures from Mannheim are horrible” and that “violence has no place in our democracy.”
Mannheim, a city with a population of approximately 300,000, is located south of Frankfurt.
