The German authorities announced, Sunday, November 7, the psychiatric internment of the Syrian author of a knife attack on a train the day before which left four wounded, excluding an Islamist track.
A first expert assessment of the perpetrator, a 27-year-old Syrian political refugee who arrived in the country in 2014, concluded that “Delusional and paranoid schizophrenia” and a strong impairment of criminal responsibility, the Nuremberg-Fürth prosecutor in charge of the case, Gerhard Neuhof, told reporters.
The young man said he felt pursued by police who would monitor him and seek in this way to drive him crazy, said the prosecutor, adding that he had not been the subject of any particular police measure. He was interned pending further examinations.
No element supporting an Islamist motivation
“There is no element pointing in the direction of an Islamist motivation”, said the head of the local police, Sabine Nagel.
The facts occurred on Saturday morning in a German high-speed train traveling between Bavaria (south) and Hamburg (north), with 208 passengers on board. The perpetrator suddenly attacked passengers in a car, randomly injuring four men aged between 26 and 60, including head injuries.
Several passengers then tried to stop the Syrian and provided first aid to the wounded, according to the authorities, who paid tribute to their “Civic courage”. The man was finally arrested without resistance. A bloody knife was found on him by the police.
Investigators are now retracing the personal journey of the Syrian refugee. The day before the assault, the man had lost his job and in 2020 he was convicted of petty fraud cases.
“This knife attack is horrible”, reacted the Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer. Even if the terrorist trail has been ruled out, these facts took place in a tense context in Germany, which has faced several jihadist attacks in recent years.
In June, a 21-year-old Syrian claiming to be part of the Islamic State organization was sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing a gay man to death and seriously injuring his companion in Dresden in October 2020.