Hamburg knife attack stokes refugee debate in Germany
The suspect who killed a man with a knife in a Hamburg supermarket was a known Islamist with psychological problems but his motives remain unclear, German officials said yesterday.
Identified as a 26-year-old Palestinian, he arrived in Germany in 2015, but was due to be deported as his application for asylum was rejected.
The assault risks reopening a bitter debate over refugees two months before general elections, putting pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel over her decision to open Germany's borders in 2015 and let in more than a million asylum seekers.
In her first reaction after Friday's attack, Merkel expressed her sympathies to victims and their family members and vowed that "the violent act must be and will be clarified".
Investigators were still struggling to determine the exact motive for the assault, which left six people injured.
The suspect "was known as an Islamist but not a jihadist," said the German port city's interior minister Andy Grote, noting "there are indications of radicalisation".
But Grote stressed that while there could have been an Islamist motive, the suspect also suffered from "psychological instability".
Germany's interior minister Thomas de Maiziere also cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
Police piecing together the assault said the man had entered the supermarket and took a kitchen knife measuring around 20 cm from the shelves.
"He ripped off the packaging and then suddenly brutally attacked a 50-year-old man who later died," said deputy police chief Kathrin Hennings.
He later wounded two more men in the supermarket before fleeing, hurting four other people along the way, before he was overpowered by courageous passers-by.
Witnesses told AFP the man had brandished the bloodied knife, shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Greatest") as he fled the scene, but that bystanders gave chase and flung chairs to stop him.
If confirmed as an Islamist attack, it would be the first in Germany since Tunisian Anis Amri drove a truck into crowds at a Berlin Christmas market on December 19, killing 12 and injuring 48.
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