Seventeen injured in Hamburg knife attack as woman arrested

BBC:

Several people have suffered life-threatening injuries in a knife attack at the main railway station in the German city of Hamburg, police have said.

The city’s fire department said 17people were injured in the attack, while police said they did not yet have a valid figure for the number of victims.

Hamburg Police said officers arrested a 39-year-old German woman at the scene as they carried out a major operation.

The attack took place at the city’s Central Station at about 18:00 local time (16:00 GMT) on Friday.

A spokesman for the Hamburg fire department told AFP news agency17 people had been injured and that some of the injuries were life-threatening.

In a post on X, Hamburg Police said several people who were hurt had sustained life-threatening injuries.

Speaking to the press outside the station, police said they believe the suspect acted alone and did not have a “political motive”.

Rather, they believe she may have been “in a state of mental distress,” Florian Abbenseth, a police spokesperson, told reporters.

The attack happened between platforms 13 and 14 – which are accessible via a busy main road – while a train was on one of the platforms.

Some of the victims were treated inside trains, according to reports.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the attack was “shocking” and thanked the emergency services on the ground for “their rapid assistance”.