Bloody act in Mannheim – knife in the head: police officer is now in an induced coma

In the attack on Friday morning on the market square in the city center, a man injured several people, including the police officer, who was seriously injured. The officer was stabbed in the back of the head. A combat knife was used as the murder weapon.

Crime scene photos

The perpetrator is from Afghanistan, the motive is still unclear
The perpetrator has since undergone surgery and is currently not available for questioning, the police spokesperson said. The motive is still unclear. According to consistent media reports, the suspect is a 25-year-old boy from Herat in Afghanistan, who lives in southern Hesse. According to security circles, he is married to a German woman who has two children.

Islam critic after operation: ‘It was very close’
Meanwhile, Islam critic Michael Stürzenberger, who was also injured in the attack, also spoke out from hospital. “It was very close yesterday,” he wrote on Telegram. Stürzenberger reported that he suffered several stab wounds, one of which in the thigh caused “significant blood loss.” He also suffered facial injuries. Stürzenberger thanked all the doctors involved and the facial surgeons “who came especially from a special clinic”.

The German Islam critic, originally from Bavaria, wanted to give a speech at an event on Mannheim’s market square in his role as spokesperson for the right-wing populist citizens’ movement.
According to the organization’s treasurer, Stefanie Kizina, the attack specifically targeted Stürzenberger.

Many questions about the crime remain unanswered
The LKA says that many questions are still unanswered and are the subject of investigation. ‘What kind of knife is that? Where does that come from? “Did he buy the knife?” – the answers to this also help to find out whether the arrested person planned the crime or whether it was a spontaneous attack. The State Security Service of the Karlsruhe Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is responsible for political crimes, is investigating the case.

“Our thoughts are with everyone who was injured in the knife attack, and my thoughts as Minister of the Interior are of course especially with the injured police colleague,” Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) told the newspaper ‘Bild ‘.

You can see what happened on the internet
Shortly after the attack, a video of the crime circulated on the Internet: it shows the attacker stabbing several people and bystanders shouting: “Get rid of the knife!” You also see an officer shooting at the attacker. Several police officers then pushed the man to the ground. According to the police, the Public Prosecution Service and the National Criminal Investigation Department, only one shot was fired.

“The pictures are terrible”
The act caused horror. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was also shocked. “The photos from Mannheim are terrible,” he wrote on the X platform. “My thoughts are with the victims. Violence is absolutely unacceptable in our democracy. The perpetrator must be severely punished.”

“Violence destroys democracy”
German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was furious. “I condemn the act in Mannheim in the strongest possible terms!” wrote his spokeswoman Cerstin Gammelin on behalf of Steinmeier on behalf of X. “There should be no place for violence in our democracy – violence destroys democracy. Freedom of expression is a valuable asset.” Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck spoke of “terrible scenes of violence”. The circumstances of the crime must now be quickly clarified, Habeck told the German news agency on Friday.

The mayor of Mannheim, Christian Specht (CDU), described the knife attack as a terrorist attack and stated: “On behalf of the city of Mannheim and the urban society of Mannheim, I condemn in the strongest terms this vicious, brutal terrorist attack as part of an event that criticizes Islam.”