Bus passengers attacked by German-Iranian; terrorism not on list

Bus passengers were attacked by a man with a knife, in which 10 were injured. The police have reported there is no sign of terrorism.

 A man armed with a knife attacked people on a bus in the northern city of Luebeck on Friday, injuring 10 including one seriously before he was arrested, police said, adding there was no indication he was radicalized or had a terrorist motive.

“The identity of the perpetrator has been clarified: a 34-year-old German citizen resident in Luebeck,” police added on Twitter. “There are currently no indications the man was politically radicalized and no signs of a terrorist background.”

A local daily without citing its source said the attacker was originally from Iran who now had German nationality and had lived in Luebeck for years.

The police added that a backpack was found in the bus from which smoke was appearing. It was examined by a bomb squad, which found a “fire accelerant” but no explosives.

In the attack, 10 people have been hurt, fortunately, no one has been reported dead. The police said: “The background to the crime is still unclear and the subject of the ongoing investigation.”

On their Twitter handle, the police said the attacker was overpowered and taken into police custody. The attack took place at 1.47 pm local time (1147 GMT).

According to the local daily quoted a witness as saying: “One of the victims had just given up his place to an older woman when the attacker stabbed him in the chest.”

READ ALSO: Bus falls off highway killing 10 passengers

ARREST ISSUED

A German court has issued an arrest warrant for a German-Iranian man suspected of carrying out a knife attack on a bus in the northern city of Luebeck.

Prosecutors said in a statement they had sought the arrest warrant for the man on suspicion of attempted murder as well as bodily harm and attempted arson. He was ordered to be remanded in custody.

NOT THE FIRST CASE

Germans have been on edge since December 2016, when a Tunisian whose request for asylum was turned down and who had links to Islamist militants hijacked a truck and plowed into a crowded marketplace in Berlin. Twelve people, including the man driving the truck when it was hijacked, were killed.

In April 2018, a man drove a camper van into a group of people sitting outside a restaurant in the German city of Muenster, killing two people before shooting himself dead. There was no evidence of any link to Islamist militancy and he was not a refugee.