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Supermarket in Wangen im Allgäu: “Thinking of the girl and her family”
Photo: David Pichler/dpa
Two days after the knife attack on a four-year-old girl in the Allgäu, the child is now stable and on the mend. That is what the police said . The little one is over the mountain, said a police spokeswoman.
Only a few details are known about the background to the crime, which makes the horror even greater: "We have never experienced an act like this here before," said the non-party mayor Michael Lang in the town hall on Thursday. "The fact that a child is suddenly attacked is something that shocks us all." His thoughts are with the family that he knows himself.
On Wednesday afternoon, a 34-year-old man attacked the four-year-old girl in the supermarket with a knife, who was accompanying her mother while she was shopping. He stabbed the little girl and injured her so badly that she had to undergo emergency surgery in the hospital.
An eyewitness possibly prevented something even worse: the man, who was also shopping in the supermarket at the time of the crime, saw the attack and took the knife away from the perpetrator. He then fled the supermarket, the man followed him and called the police. The emergency services then arrested the suspect, which he apparently allowed to happen without resistance.
He was brought before the magistrate on Thursday afternoon. The allegations are attempted murder and grievous bodily harm. According to police, the 34-year-old did not comment. Pictures showed him in front of the Ravensburg district court with his upper body bare and barefoot. A so-called detention order was issued and the alleged perpetrator was then taken to a psychiatric hospital. According to the “Schwäbische Allgemeine,” the public prosecutor’s office “assumes reduced culpability or incapacity.”
It is unclear what could have motivated the man to attack the child. "The two didn't know each other and there was probably no previous relationship," said Ravensburg police headquarters spokeswoman Daniela Baier. She also emphasized that the attack on the toddler was not an everyday case: "Crimes of this kind are very rare." The investigation is currently underway and all traces are being evaluated, said Baier. This could take weeks.
The man apparently had a place to sleep in the city
The question also arises as to why the man with Syrian and Dutch citizenship was in Wangen at all. Prosecutor Tanja Vobiller told the “Schwäbische Allgemeine”: It already seems clear that the man “had a connection to Wangen.” Ravensburg police chief Uwe Stürmer added that the 34-year-old had been in the city "for some time": "He obviously had a place to sleep in Wangen," said the police chief. Where this was still needs to be clarified.
Some citizens from Wangen reacted with dismay to the crime. Passers-by in the city's pedestrian zone told the news channel "SWR" that they soon no longer dared to go out on the street when they heard such news. "Not in the evening anyway, but the crime in the supermarket actually happened during the day, so you ask yourself: What's going on there now?" a woman told the station. Another said it made her unsafe: "You don't want to let your children run around on the street anymore." The police responded to the residents' concerns with an information mobile on the Wangen market square.
The police also confirmed that several dozen people met on Thursday evening for a vigil in front of the supermarket where the girl was attacked. The police spokeswoman said they were “concerned citizens.” A press representative was also insulted there; the police have not yet been able to provide any further details about the incident or who called for the meeting.
kry/dpa/AFP