Berlin: A woman was killed and two people injured by a Syrian asylum-seeker armed with a machete on Sunday in the southwest German city of Reutlingen, the local police said. The man, who has been detained, “had a dispute” with the woman and killed her “with a machete” before injuring a second woman and a man, according to a police statement that offered no explanation on the cause of the attack.
The attacker struck outside a kebab shop at around 4:30 pm local time, causing several witnesses to flee in panic, German newspaper Bild reported. “The attacker was completely out of his mind. He ran with the machete behind a police patrol car,” an eye-witness told the tabloid. Police said in a statement the attacker was known to them but they suspect he was a “lone operator”, according to the Independent.
Police do not think people in and around the city are at risk. They confirmed the attacker was a 21-year-old Syrian refugee but have not released his name. The motive for the attack is unclear. Sunday’s attack comes as Germany is on edge following two attacks in the past week. On Friday David Ali Sonboly (18), a German-Iranian, went on a rampage in a Munich mall killing nine. Earlier, an Afghan teenager had attacked train passengers with an axe in Bavaria, wounding five.
