The alleged perpetrator was arrested.

At least two people were killed and seven injured on Wednesday in a knife attack on a regional train traveling in northern Germany, police said.

The attack took place in the afternoon on a regional train connecting Kiel (Schleswig-Holstein) to Hamburg, said a spokesman for the Flensburg police.

Among the seven wounded, three were seriously, added a spokesman for the police of Itzehoe, a neighboring town.

The alleged perpetrator, who would be between 20 and 30 years old, was arrested at Brokstedt station, a town located about sixty kilometers from Hamburg where the regional train was immobilized.

He is also injured, according to the police.

"Witnesses managed to immobilize the suspect after the fact, until the police arrived in Brokstedt," she said in a statement.

A pattern still unclear

"The knife attack on a regional train is news that upsets us," reacted German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a tweet.

“All our thoughts are with the victims of this horrific act and their families,” she added.

The reason for the attack has not yet been established, according to the police, adding that all leads are being studied, from the act of an extremist to the gesture of an unbalanced person.

Der Messerangriff in einem Regionalzug ist eine erschütternde Nachricht.

All unsere Gedanken sind bei den Opfern dieser furchtbaren Tat und ihren Familien.

— Nancy Faeser (@NancyFaeser) January 25, 2023

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Witnesses to the attack described a "panic scene" on the train, writes the

Bild

media on its website.

A large array of police vehicles and ambulances has been deployed around the station, according to photos published by

Bild

.

The railway company Deutsche Bahn announced that trains would be canceled on the main lines.

Berlin always on the alert

The German authorities remain on the alert in the face of the jihadist threat, particularly since a ram truck attack claimed by the Islamic State group which killed 12 people in December 2016 in Berlin.

This jihadist attack is the deadliest ever committed on German soil.

Germany remains a target for jihadist groups, in particular because of its involvement in the coalition fighting the IS group in Iraq and Syria and in the one that had been deployed in Afghanistan after 2001.

Since 2013 and until the end of 2021, the number of Islamists considered dangerous in Germany has increased fivefold to currently stand at 615, according to the Interior Ministry.

That of the Salafists is estimated at around 11,000, twice as many as in 2013. After a warning from the FBI, the German authorities had notably announced on January 8 the arrest of two Iranians suspected of having wanted to commit an attack. chemical "Islamist" with ricin and cyanide.

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