German prosecutors have ruled out a terrorist motive in Wednesday’s knife attack on a train in Germany by a stateless Palestinian who killed two people and injured several others.
“There are no indications of a terrorist context. Other elements of the context and the course of events are the subject of an investigation, ”said Peter Müller-Rakov, a spokesman for the Itzehoe Public Ministry (northern Germany), quoted by the publication. This is reported by the France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
The alleged aggressor, 33, a stateless person of Palestinian origin, was arrested shortly after the attack and will be presented this Thursday afternoon, at the request of the Ministry of Public Administration, to a judge who will decide on the action to be taken.
The attacker is suspected of stabbing several people on a regional express train from Kiel to Hamburg in northern Germany.
A 19-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl were killed in the attack, and seven other people were injured, some of them seriously.
Eventually, the assailant was apprehended by other passengers still in the middle of the train and then apprehended by the police at Brokstedt station in northern Germany, halfway between Hamburg and Kiel.
The suspect, once homeless, was arrested a few months ago and served a prison sentence also for assault, being released in the middle of this month.