The authorities in Germany on Thursday released details of the two people killed in stabbing attack on a regional train.
Schleswig-Holstein’s Interior Minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, before the start of a state parliament session said the victims were a 16-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man.
The public prosecutor’s office in the northern German town of Itzehoe said there were no indications of a terrorist background to the crime, in which seven people were injured on Wednesday.
The alleged perpetrator, who was overpowered by witnesses, was also injured. According to the police, the two victims, who came from Schleswig-Holstein, knew each other. There were around 120 passengers on the train during Wednesday afternoon’s attack.
According to the police, the perpetrator was reportedly a 33-year-old Palestinian. He is expected to be brought before a magistrate on Thursday. The accused is no longer under medical treatment, but is in police custody.
The attack took place as the train was travelling south from Kiel, in the far north of Germany, to Hamburg.
Police said the stabbing spree occurred just prior to 3 pm (1400 GMT), before the arrival of the train at Brokstedt station, where the suspect was taken into custody after an altercation.
The suspect was said to have been detained by train passengers before the police arrived. He was moderately injured and taken to hospital.
Of the seven people wounded, three suffered serious injuries, police said.
The background of the crime is still unknown. The alleged perpetrator had previously been detained in a Hamburg correctional institution for an offence of bodily harm, according to the police headquarters in Itzehoe.
