Enlarge image
A police car at the crime scene in Ansbach
Photo: Daniel Karmann / dpa
According to initial findings, the knife attack by a 30-year-old in Ansbach, Franconia, was not based on a political or religious motive.
Witnesses heard the perpetrator shout "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great"), a representative of the criminal police said at a press conference.
However, initial evaluations did not provide any indication of an Islamist motive, it said.
The attacker injured two young men on Thursday afternoon before police shot and fatally injured him.
The investigators also assume that the man acted alone.
When evaluating traces, video recordings and his mobile phone, the investigators have so far found no evidence of accomplices or supporters.
The 30-year-old came to Germany as an asylum seeker in 2015, it said.
Two years ago he was assigned to communal accommodation in Ansbach.
His application for asylum was rejected, he was only tolerated in Germany.
His tolerance would have expired in the coming week.
One can only speculate about a connection between this situation and the crime, said the representative of the criminal police.
The Afghan was only sporadically in Ansbach, he had contacts in the greater Mainz area.
Evidence of psychological abnormalities
In his room at the shelter, investigators found two packages of antidepressants.
There are indications that he was mentally disturbed, said a representative of the Ansbach public prosecutor's office.
There has also been a mentoring process before.
She emphasized that investigations are being carried out both in this direction and further because of a possible terrorist motive.
The 30-year-old had also been caught seven times with criminal offenses in the past few years.
It was mainly about bodily harm as well as sexual harassment and a drug offense, he paid a fine for sexual harassment.
The police speak of a dynamic course of action
The police described the course of events on Thursday as dynamic.
The emergency call was received shortly before 6 p.m. on Thursday, after which several patrol cars were deployed.
The 30-year-old knelt on a 17-year-old student near the train station and had two large butcher knives with him.
A 20-year-old man happened to be there and, with presence of mind, threw himself on the attacker – the prosecutor spoke of “high civil courage”.
The two slightly injured men were treated in a hospital in the evening, but were able to leave on Thursday evening.
fek/dpa/AFP
