Six injured in a rampage in Zug: perpetrator an Islamist?
Created: 05/13/2022Updated: 05/13/2022 16:59
The police lettering is on an emergency vehicle.
© Christoph Soeder/dpa/symbol picture
Horror scenes in a regional train: an attacker randomly stabs fellow passengers and injures five people.
The stabber is no stranger.
He was classified as an Islamist "test case" in 2017.
Herzogenrath/Düsseldorf - It is 7.42 in the morning and the regional express 4 has just left the train station in Herzogenrath in the direction of Aachen.
At that moment on Friday, a 31-year-old man pulled out a knife and stabbed his fellow passengers indiscriminately.
In the end, six injured are counted, including the attacker.
Born in Iraq and coming to Germany as a refugee, he is no stranger to the authorities.
According to a note from the refugee home where he lived at the time, he was classified as a "test case Islamism" in 2017.
He had isolated himself from the roommates, changed a lot and grown a beard.
"We have to assume an amok attack," said NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) on Friday in Düsseldorf.
270 people were on the train at the time of the crime.
Among them is a 60-year-old federal police officer in plain clothes.
Together with two travelers, he succeeds in overpowering and arresting the knife man.
"These three people may have prevented a greater danger," says Reul.
The authorities set off a major alarm.
200 emergency services rush to the scene.
The train stops on the open track and the perpetrator, wrapped in white overalls, is taken away by the investigators.
Most of the injured suffered cuts, including on the head and face, but no one is in mortal danger.
Four injured are taken to hospitals.
The federal police officer is among the injured.
The perpetrator is also injured, but rather lightly.
There is another reason why he is taken to the hospital anyway: he has a fever.
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"It was a cruel act that could be stopped in an act of enormous courage," says the minister.
The minister emphasizes that the attacker has not been conspicuous since it was classified as a test case.
However, this will now be checked again, because he used different names.
"It is now necessary to determine the extent to which there was actually an Islamist motive," says Reul.
The events of the last two days in Herzogenrath and Essen show that the dangers posed by right-wing extremism and Islamism have not disappeared.
"They are still existent, threatening and can be life-threatening."
The public prosecutor's office in Aachen will remain responsible for the case until the afternoon.
"We are in contact," says the Attorney General responsible for terrorism in Düsseldorf.
dpa
