From BZ/dpa
One day after the knife attack in a Berlin elementary school, the particularly badly injured student is out of danger.
A spokeswoman for the Senate Education Administration said on Thursday. The two girls who were stabbed, seven and eight years old, are still seriously injured and are being treated in hospital.
Relatives as well as students and teachers who were present at the crime on Wednesday afternoon are being psychologically cared for. The school had announced that they were “concerned about the children and colleagues who were present at the crime”.
According to BZ information, the perpetrator climbed over the fence of the building on Mainzer Strasse around 3:10 p.m. and attacked the children at the table tennis tables in the schoolyard – after he had calmly smoked a cigarette.
The police during the operation at the Neukölln Evangelical School Photo: Timo Beurich
The police arrested a 38-year-old man as the suspected perpetrator. The motive for the crime was initially unknown.
Police assume it was a lone perpetrator
According to Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU), the police are assuming a single perpetrator who was neither politically nor religiously motivated. Whether he knew the girls is the subject of the investigation, said a police spokeswoman.
According to BZ information, he had no relationship with his victims. There are indications of a mental illness, as BZ learned from security circles.
Classes at the Neukölln Evangelical School should be canceled for the rest of the week. “The entire school community is deeply saddened and appalled,” wrote Principal Thorsten Knauer-Huckauf on the website.